I'm Still Here: Hiccup's Tale
by Chocobo Scribe
Summary: Companion to Toothless's Tale. He was an outcast, everyone hated him, then one day everyhting changed when he found the elusive Night Fury in the forests of his home. This is Hiccup's Tale, told from his own eyes...COMPLETE!
1. I Trash the Village Again

**Hello agian peoples! It's Chocobo Scribe! After Toothless's Tale and seeing how many people read it, I decided to see what I could do with Hiccup. I know that the "Movie Novelization fic" is being done by other people as well. But I have my reasons for doing this-mostly emotional. Some of my oen expereinces in 4-6 grade were pretty similar to what Hiccup went through sans the Dragons. I was actaully a little reluctant to do this, but while watching Treasure Planet and "I'm Still Here (Jim's Theme)" started playing the Muse of fanfciton attacked and I started writting. I thoguht "What the heck? Might do me some good." and I will be using segments of "I'm Still Here (Jim's Theme)" as epigraphs for each chapter.**

**So, I hope you enjoy this the same way you enjoyed Toothless's Tale.**

**Disclaimers: I do not own How to Train Your Dragon or Dreamworks, and the Song "I'm Still Here (Jim's Theme)" belongs to John Rzeznik. **

**Now R&Rb and enjoy!**

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**I'm Still Here: Hiccup's Tale**

**Companion to How to Train Your Dragon: Toothless's Tale**

**Chapter One: I trash the Village…Again…**

_I am a question to the world,_

_Not an answer to be heard,_

_Or a moment that's held in your arms…_

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

This is Berk. It's just twelve days north of hopeless and a few degrees south of freezing to death. Located solemnly right on the meridian of misery. In a word, sturdy. The village has been here for seven generations, but the buildings are all new. We have hunting, fishing, and charming views of the sunsets.

The only problems are the pests. Y'see, some places have mosquitoes or mice. Not us.

We have a much _bigger_ problem…

The sound of the alarm bell jolted me out of my sleep. I fell out of bed falling to the floor with a _thud_. I heard a loud roar and the alarm bell still being banged away at. I quickly shoved on my leather boots and pulled on my fur vest and ran downstairs. Once at the front door I opened it-and immediately slammed it shut just barely in time to avoid being burned to a crisp!

"Dragons…" I said. It was another raid!

"Better use the back door…" I muttered to myself glancing at the smoldering front door and sprinted out the backdoor, and into the village. I tripped and fell-I'm a bit clumsy-A large Viking appeared over me with a loud : "AAARRRGGHH!" then saw it was just me.

"Mornin'!" he said sloppily and ran off into the fight. Yeah, great thing to wake up to.

My name is Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III. I know, I know…Not the best name there is, but not the worst. The townspeople believe that a hideous name will frighten off Trolls and Gnomes. Though I haven't seen any proof of that.

I dashed through the village weaving my way through the townspeople all rushing out to defend the village from the Dragons. Yes, the pests are Dragons. Why don't we just leave you ask? We're Vikings, we have…stubbornness issues.

"Get inside!" A large female Viking shouted after me as I ran by. Well…just about everyone dwarfs me, but at least I can run pretty fast. I kept running down the path to the forge where Gobber was most likely waiting for me-and was suddenly grabbed by the back of my vest and jerked back as Dragon breath shot out in front of me.

"What are ye doing out here Hiccup? Get back inside!" A large red haired and bearded man in typical Viking armor thrust me towards the nearest house with enough force to knock down a door. That was Stoick the Vast, the chief of Berk-and my Dad. It's said that when he was only a baby, he popped a Dragon's head right off its shoulders.

Do I believe that?

Yes Ido.

I put on an extra burst of speed and dodging flaming debris and trying to avoid being snatched up by a Dragon I made it to the forge. I quickly took off my vest and replaced it with a blacksmith's apron.

"Ah, Hiccup. Nice of ye to join the party." Gobber said. He was a large blonde Viking with braided mustache, interchangeable prosthetic hands, and a peg leg. He was the town blacksmith I've been apprenticed to him ever since I was little.

Or, _littler_ as the joke goes.

"I thought ye been carried off lad."

"Who me? Nah, c'mon, I'm _way_ too muscular for their taste." I said flexing my arms without much effect, "I mean, they wouldn't know what to do with all _this._" Truthfully, I was too _fast_ to be caught, compared to nearly all the other Vikings, I was a toothpick. Then there was also the fact that during every Dragon raid I can remember I was either in the forge with Gobber or in my house.

"Well, they need toothpicks don' they?" Gobber said teasingly attaching a set of coal tweezers to his prosthetic hand base which was strapped to his left arm by several bands of leather. I ignored him and went to work sharpening the pile of dulled and dented axes and swords next to the grinding wheel.

After I finished, I picked up the ones I could carry and ran over to the drop off window just in time to see the bucket brigade try to douse one of the houses that caught on fire. I recognized them, Fishlegs, he knew just about everything about Dragons-though the way he spouts it out can get really annoying after a few minutes. Snoutlout a big brawny guy and a bit of a bully-and my cousin. Tuffnut and Ruffnut, the perpetually arguing twin brother and sister-who were at that very moment fighting over who'd use the bucket, and…

"…Astrid…" Astrid, the most beautiful girl in the whole village straightened up in a graceful arc as the house she and the bucket brigade had been trying to douse exploded into a huge fireball, _Their job is BEYOND awesome…I wish I could be out there with everyone else and…Astrid…_I just stood there in a daze staring dreamily at Astrid.

She and the other teens were headed right for the forge, I was about to think of something cool and impressive to say, when Gobber jerked me up with his tweezers and spun me around.

"Oy! Back to work lad!"

"Oh come on!" I protested, "Let me out please! I need to make my mark!" Gobber set me down as I turned to face him.

"Oh you've made plenty of marks lad. All in the wrong places!" Gobber said poking me in the chest. Okay…Maybe I _did_ blow a hole in the roof of his house with the bola ballistae I was working on. It was an accident! I was only trying to ferret out any faulty parts I might have missed!

"Two minutes, please!" I said earnestly, "That's all I ask. I'll kill a Dragon. My life will get infinitely better. I might even get a date!"

Gobber looked at me slightly exasperated; we had this conversation more times than I could count.

"I'm sorry to say this Hiccup, but ye got no chance of being _any_ kind of Viking!" Gobber said and proceeded to tell me why-again, "Ye can't lift a hammer, ye can't swing an axe…" He lifted a pair of bolas.

"Ye can't even throw one o' these!" and handed the bolas to a Viking at the drop off window who immediately threw it at a large pig like Dragon-A Groncle. The bola got tangled in its tiny hummingbird like wings and it crashed to the ground nose first. Fortunately, I was prepared for the whole "you-can't-even-throw-a-pair-of-bolas" thing.

"But _this_," I said gesturing to my latest invention the bola ballistae, "_This_ will throw it for me." I patted it self-satisfyingly. The moment my hand touched it the ballistae popped open and a pair of bolas shot out hitting a Viking right in the middle of his forehead knocking him out cold.

"Hiccup," Gobber groaned, "_This_ is _exactly_ wha' I'm talkin' about!"

"I-it was a mild calibration issue!" I said trying to recollect my wits, "I can easily fix that!"

"No, I'm not talkin' about that contraption of yours." Gobber said, "If ye want to get out there and fight Dragons, ye need to stop all of _this_." He traced his hands around me. There was a stunned silence for a few seconds.

"But…You just pointed to _all_ of me…" I said confused.

"Thas' right!" Gobber said, "Jus' stop bein' all of ye!"

I stared at him slightly dumbstruck for a few seconds, then, my impulsiveness getting the better of me I immediately said as sarcastically as I could, "Oooohhh..."

"Oooohhh." Gobber mimicked.

"You…You sir are playing a dangerous game." I said getting into his face, "Keeping this much…raw Viking-ness contained. THERE WILL BE CONSEQUENCES!" I stabbed the air with a finger to make my point.

My words had absolutely no effect whatsoever.

"I'll take my chances…" Gobber said taking a banged up sword from a Viking at the drop off window, "Sword! Sharpen, now!" he dropped the dulled and banged up weapon into my arms.

"Ugh!" I grunted and staggered under its weight, the sword was almost as long as I was tall! While Gobber was helping with other broken and banged up weapons I staggered over to the grinding wheel and started sharpening the sword. One of the benefits of being a blacksmith's apprentice, I've become very good with my hands. I'm always inventing things to try and make up for my lack of physical strength.

_One day…I'll get out there…_I thought, _I'll get the chance to prove myself._

Because around here, killing a Dragon is everything. The Deadly Nadder will get me _at least_ noticed. A Groncle, those guys are really tough to take down, that'll get me a girlfriend for sure. Hideious ZippleBack, exotic, two heads, twice the status. Then there's the Monstrous Nightmare, only the very serious Vikings (like my Dad) go after these guys. They have a _very_ nasty habit of setting themselves on fire.

But, in my case, I have to go for the ultimate prize. The elusive Night Fury. No one has even seen it. All we know is that it never steals food, never shows itself, and never _ever_ misses. Nobody, _nobody_ has ever killed or let alone seen a Night Fury and lived to tell the tale.

That's why I'm gonna to be the first.

Suddenly there was a huge explosion and a loud cry of: "NIGHT FURY!"

"Man the forge Hiccup!" Gobber ordered, "They need me out there!" he swapped the tweezers for an axe as he said this. He started to dash out the door then stopped, turned, and pointed to me.

"Stay. Put. Right there." What was I? A dog? Gobber turned back around and with a loud, "YAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRGHHHHH!" ran out to join the fight axe hand held high over his head.

"Yeah…sure…" I said in mock innocence, "I'll stay _right_ here…"

As soon as Gobber was out of sight I quickly took off the blacksmith's apron and put my fur vest back on and ran over to my bola ballistae and ran out pushing the ballistae along like a wagon. I ran past several other people all running in the opposite direction most shouting out at me annoyed because I ran over their feet and that I was outside in general.

Finally, I reached a clear spot overlooking the bay. No one was there. Not a cloud in sight, a full moon. Perfect conditions. Maybe the gods were finally cutting me some slack. I pulled down the handles of the ballistae so that it was pointing to the sky and pulled back a lever causing the shell to pop open revealing a set of bows which would pull back on and launch the bolas I had already loaded in.

"Come on…"I murmured scanning the night sky, "Gimme something to shoot at…" I kept scanning the star strewn sky, looking for any distortion. Listening for the tell tale shriek and swooping noise. My finger was only a hair's breadth away from the trigger, I wasn't even blinking.

First, I saw it. A blurred ripple across the stars, then I heard it. A horrible shriek filled the night air as a violet fireball shot at the watch tower causing it to explode with a white ring spreading out from it. Then…

_THERE!_ I fired the bolas at a dark shape revealed by the light of the explosion. I was thrown back be the recoil! The bolas sailed through the air, and, somehow, impossibly, I heard another loud shriek and a dark shape sailing down to earth towards Raven Point.

"I…I…I hit it!" I shouted throwing my arms up, "YES! I hit it!" I check to see if anyone had been watching.

"Did anyone see that?" I said feeling proud of myself. I turned back to my bola ballistae and froze. A Monstrous Nightmare had crept up on me.

"Except you." I said lamely then ran as fast as my feet could carry me.

I'd love to tell you that I had a brilliant Plan B up my sleeve. That I was cleverly leading the Nightmare into a trap I set up ahead of time just in case this happened. To be honest, my only thought was: "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!"

I weaved my way through the fighting with the Nightmare hot on my heels. No one even noticed-naturally; which just proves my theory that everyone in Berk secretly hopes I end up as a Dragon's lunch. I felt hot air, and the sharp intake of breath and I knew if I didn't dive for cover, I would be a burnt cinder! I just barely managed to get behind one of the torch pillars as the Dragon's hot breath blasted the wood and parted around me! I squeezed my eyes shut and covered my head with my arms to shield my face from the smoke.

Suddenly, the flames stopped. I stood there gasping, heart hammering and trembling slightly from my near death experience. I lowered my arms and peered around the torch pillar and saw the Nightmare's tail. Then it's head must be…I felt hot air on the back of my neck. Then a large hairy form rushed past me knocking hard into the Dragon! Dad had arrived just barely in time. The Nightmare tried to breathe fire again, but all I heard was a gagging burp. The Nightmare had reached its shot limit.

"Yeh all out." Dad said to the Nightmare. He let out a fierce war cry and there was a sickening _crack_ as he hit the Nightmare over the skull with something very hard and heavy. It would defiantly end up in the Kill Ring for practice fights.

The wood pillar creaked and smoldered ominously. I turned and stepped back and it wobbled and fell over to my left revealing my Dad looking _very_ disappointed. I turned back around, the torch set on top of the pillar crashed onto one of the many wooden walkways. The Viking standing there only jumped out of the way just barely in time. The torch burned its way through the walkway and fell through and proceeded to crash its way through the village. I winced each time I heard a crash. This was going to be a very bad day…Again…and just to make that point, the Dragons flew off with half our livestock.

"Dad…" I said turning to face him extremely embarrassed, "I'm sorry…"

No response.

"Okay, I screwed up." I admitted, "But, I hit the Night Fury!" As soon as the words were out of my mouth he seized the back of my vest and started dragging me through the village back to our house,

"It's not like the last few times Dad!" I protested, "I really, really did hit it! I had a very clear shot. I shot it down when it took out one of the watchtowers, the rest of you guys were busy. It went down towards Raven Point, if we get a search party we can find it before-."

"STOP!" Dad shouted releasing me. I flinched, he continued in a calmer tone, "Just…stop…Every time ye set foot outside, disaster falls. Can ye not see I have _bigger_ problems to worry about? Winter is almost here and I have an entire village to feed."

"Well, between you and me the village could do with a little _less_ feeding don't you think?" I blurted out.

Me and my big mouth.

"This isn't a joke Hiccup!" Dad shouted exasperated, "Why can't ye follow the simplest orders?"

"I-I can't…I can't stop myself!" I stammered trying not to go to pieces, "I…I see a Dragon and I just have to…kill it...Y'know? It's who I am Dad." I said this as I twisted the head off an imaginary Dragon. Dad sighed, disappointed, as usual…

"Ye many things Hiccup. But a Dragon Slayer isn't one of them." He gently pushed me towards our house, "Now, get back to the house. Gobber, make sure he gets there. I have his mess to clean up."

Gobber tapped me on the back of my head in what he intended to be in a friendly way, but it felt more like a head slap to me. I started on my way back to my house when Snoutlout spoke up.

"Wow. I have never seen anybody screw up that badly. _That really helped."_ He sneered. I didn't make eye contact, I was too embarrassed to.

"Thank you, thank you." I said trying to keep a stiff upper lip, "I was trying…" why was it every time I tried to help, I made things even worse? I stewed in my thoughts as I trudged along the walkway to my house with Gobber following me. Finally, I couldn't hold it in any longer.

"I _really _did hit a Night Fury." I said all my energy had abandoned me.

"O' course ye did lad!" Gobber said just trying to humor me in one of his many failed attempts to cheer me up. I clenched my fists.

"HE _NEVER_ LISTENS!" I complained.

"It runs in the family." Gobber said. It was true enough.

"And when he _does_ it's…always with this disappointed _scowl_, like someone skimped out on the meat in his sandwich." I walked up the front steps to the front door. I turned around, planted my fists on my hips, puffed out my chest and doing my best to copy a thick Scottish accent mimicking my Dad, "Excuse me barmaid! I believe ye brought me the wrong offspring! I ordered an extra large boy with beefy arms; extra guts and glory on the side! This here…This is a talkin' fish bone!" I really got into my ranting, acting as if I had freakishly huge biceps and as if I was shouting at the whole world in general. I sighed, dropped my arms to my sides in utter defeat.

Gobber gave me the "Don't-be-ridiculous" look, "Now, ye thinkin' this all wrong lad," he said, "It's not wha' you _look_ like he can't stand. It's whas' _inside_ he can't stand." Great work Gobber, what a way to pour salt on the wound.

"Thank you for summing that up…" I said tonelessly turning to open the door.

"Look.." Gobber said, "Jus…Jus stop tryin' to be somethin' ye not lad."

I looked at him over my shoulder, "I just…" I said sadly, "I just wanna be one of you guys…" I opened the door and shut it behind me. I picked up my notebook and pencil from a nearby table and making sure my dagger was securely in place at my belt, walked across the room to the back door and slipped out into the forest to look for the Night Fury.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

**And that's the first chapter! Let me know what you think!**

**Kudos to John Rzeznik for writing such an awsome song. I'm sure everyone who saw Treasure Planet and saw HTTYD dragon must of thought of "I'm Still Here (Jim's Theme)" I mean, that song totally fits Hiccup doesn't it?**

**Chocobo Scribe**


	2. I Find the Night Fury

**after seeing the reception chapter one recieved I couldn't keep you waiting! Here comes chapter two!**

**Standard disclaimers apply! R&R please!**

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**Chapter Two: I Find the Night Fury**

_And what do you think you'd ever say?_

_I won't listen anyway,_

_You don't know me,_

_And I'll never be what you want me to be…_

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

I quietly made my way through the outskirts of Berk and into the forests towards Raven's Point. Everyone else in the village would be doing repair jobs to clean up after the raid and my mess. So I was confident that nobody would take any notice of my absence.

Everyone was most likely in the meade hall right now. That was where the villagers gathered whenever Dad made his plans for finding the Dragon's Nest; though every ship that went looking for it never came back. They all got lost in the fog known as Helhiem's Gate.

I opened my notebook to the map of Berk I drew last year, despite my impulsiveness and short attention span-I just tend to pay attention to everything all at once making it hard to listen to what people tell me-I'm actually quite observant and aware of my surroundings. I always keep my notebook on hand in case I find something interesting so I can take note of it or make a sketch. It's my only keepsake of my Mom, Valhallarama. I don't have many memories of Mom, and the ones I do have are fuzzy. She passed away when I was very young. My strongest memory of her is my third birthday when she gave me my notebook saying it might come to be useful one day.

"Alright…"I muttered circling the point from where I shot down the Night Fury, "If the Night Fury fell from there…it should have landed about here?" I drew a line from the origin point to the Raven Point area. It was time to start searching.

Several hours later, my map was full of cross outs and I was starting to go to any random spot, squeeze my eyes shut and pray that I got lucky and found the Night Fury. But, I had no luck.

Typical, just typical. It looks as if the gods finally cut me a little slack by giving me a chance to prove myself, then yank it back just when I can grasp it.

_Come on…Now…_ I thought. I opened my eyes. No Night Fury. I took several deep breaths in an attempt to calm down and crossed out another spot on my map, then my frustration getting to me, started scribbling out the whole map.

"Oh the gods hate me…" I groaned. Everyone else did, so why not them too? I shoved my pencil back into my pocket book and tucked it into my vest, "Some people lose their knife or their mug. But NOOOOOOOOOOOO! I manage to lose an entire _Dragon_!" I slapped a branch out of my way-which immediately snapped back to slap me right in the face.

_THWAK!_

"OW!" That was it. I was about the tear the branch off, when I noticed that the tree it was attached to was split lengthwise right down the middle. One half of the tree had been flattened against the hill and after, there was a huge trench as if something had plowed its way through the ground.

_What came through here?_ I ran down the hill following the trail towards several large boulders and ducked down as fast as I could! Only a few feet away from me, was the Night Fury.

It looked nothing like I imagined. Except the color of its scales, jet black. But, I always imagined that the Night Fury would be this great beast with spikes all over its body, near impenetrable armored scales, and a wing span of over fifty feet!

In reality, the Night Fury wasn't that big. I'd put it at about fifteen feet long. It had slightly stubby legs, almost like those of a dog. The head was slightly triangular with floppy ears, two stubby horn-like projections from the back of the skull along with a net like flap from the cheeks, and the wings, when fully spread out must have had a wing span of close to twenty feet. I also noticed a second set of wings attached to its hind legs. And unlike most Dragons, the Night Fury had a short neck and no nose horn.

To sum it up, this Dragon was built for speed.

I quickly drew my dagger from my belt and taking a few deep breaths to gather up my courage, sprinted down the slope leaned back against the boulders. Then taking another breath and holding my dagger at the ready I stepped out from behind the boulder. It was rightly called "Night Fury" among other more important things; I couldn't help but wonder if the night sky itself had come to life in the shape of a Dragon. I inched closer holding my dagger up in both hands.

"I…I…I did it…" I gasped amazed at my own success, "Thi-This fixes _everything_! Oh YES!" If I brought home proof that I had indeed felled a Night Fury, everyone would finally stop giving me a hard time and start singing my praises of how I felled the most feared of Dragons using my ingenuity.

Hey, brains had to beat brawn _someday_.

"I have brought down this mighty creature!" I shouted proudly planting a triumphant foot on the Night Fury's side, then without warning it shifted under my foot causing me to lose my balance, "WHOA!" I stumbled backwards nearly falling over. I somehow managed to regain my footing and glanced back at the Dragon.

One, bright green, cat-like eye was staring right at me. I gulped, still pointing my dagger at its belly, right about where its heart should be. I took a deep breath and gathered up my courage.

"I'm going to kill you Dragon." I said in a low voice, "I'll cut out your heart and take it back to my father…" I turned back to glare back at the Dragon to show I meant it. And yet…something in the back of my head was telling me not to strike.

"I…Am…A…Viking." I said, my words shook slightly.

_No…_ _I can't back down now! Not when I'm so close!_ I took another deep breath, raised my dagger high above my head squeezed my eyes shut and readied myself to strike. I took another deep breath, and another, and another…I opened one eye and saw that the Dragon's eyes had gone slit in absolute terror. My arms froze in place.

_No! Not now! Please Odin not now!_ I prayed frantically and squeezed my eyes shut again and once again readied to strike! I had to, I had to cut the Dragon's heart out and finally prove myself as a man to Berk!

_This is slaughter._ A voice in the back of my head said, _The Night Fury can't even move while it's all tied up. Killing it while it can fight back is one thing, but while it's defenseless…_

"I'm…a…Viking…" I groaned my arms going slack the dagger's flat coming to rest on the top of my head. No…This…wasn't what I was meant to do. The more I thought I found I really _didn't_ want to kill the Night Fury. Dad was right, I was no Dragon Slayer. I was doomed to be a weakling for the rest of my life.

I lowered my arms to look at my dagger, then at the Night fury tied up with the bola I shot at it. I sighed heavily knowing what I had to do.

"I did this…" I said and got down on one knee, and started cutting at the ropes that held the Night Fury constrained.

Go ahead; call me an idiot, a fool, completely insane whatever you like! But I was not going to kill the Night Fury, I was going to let it go and hopefully, never see it again. I quickly sawed through the ropes glancing around frantically making sure no one happened to be walking by. This would take _a lot_ of explaining…

"One more…" I gasped somehow knowing the Dragon could understand my words (and I wouldn't have been at all surprised if it had some idea of what I was thinking too), "And you're free!" With those words, I cut through the last rope. I was about to tell the Night Fury to fly away, go home, get far away and stay where ever it and the other Dragons lived, when suddenly, the Night Fury sprang up onto its feet and pounced!

"AGH!" I yelped and tried to get away, but the Night Fury was faster! It pinned me against the boulders, one powerful paw around my throat making it difficult to breathe! My dagger had been knocked out of my hand and skittered away out of my reach. I gasped and tried to pull the paw off me, only a little more pressure, and my throat would've been crushed!

I stared into the Dragons bright green eyes terrified! Either I was about to be burned to a crisp or have my head bitten off! The tables had been turned. Now I was defenseless and in the Dragon's exact position only moments earlier.

The Night Fury glared at me, then…miraculously, impossibly, it let me go! I coughed clutching at my throat trying to get some air into my lungs and felt the large bruise left behind. I looked back up. The Night Fury rose onto its hind legs roared at me showing its fangs, then turned and flew away crashing into the trees. I stood up shakily using the boulder behind me for support. I stepped forward to watch the Night Fury vanish into the forest.

After that, I couldn't tell you much of what happened next because I passed out.

I woke with a start. I was lying on the forest floor flat on my back. I sat bolt upright. How long had I been out? I glanced around a little confused. Maybe I just randomly passed out while hiking in the forest and the Night Fury encounter had just been a bad dream. I _had_ been walking around the forest since the crack of dawn. Then I saw the cut bola ropes and _knew_ I hadn't been dreaming.

_I just encountered the most feared Dragon known to man and survived…_I felt the large bruise around my throat. I had been _very_ lucky. I fumbled around for my dagger, and realized, that it was almost night! I got down on all fours and scrabbled around for my dagger in the dim light. When my hand closed around the hilt, I stood up, jammed it into my belt and sprinted up the hill retracing my steps back to Berk. Dad was going to kill me!

I stumbled and tripped a few times in my hurry to get back to town before anyone _actually_ started wondering where I wandered off to. Thankfully, I managed to get back within the town's borders just as night fell and the stars started coming into view. I stopped running to catch my breath and glanced around, almost nobody was outside except for the odd night owl. Everyone was most likely in their houses or in the meade hall getting drunk.

I slipped quietly through town to my house and opened the back door as quietly as I could. Dad was kneeling in front of the hearth stoking the coals. He hadn't noticed me.

Yet.

I crept past him and was halfway up the stairs when…

"Hiccup." Dad said calmly. I stopped in my tracks and stepped down a few steps.

"Ah…Dad…" I gulped, "I…I have to talk to you…" Dad stood up and walked over to the stairs to join me.

"I need to talk with ye too son." He said.

I took a deep breath and said, "I decided that I don't want to fight Dragons." But whatever he said, he said it at the exact same time I spoke and didn't understand a word of what he said.

"What?" we both said in unison looking at each other confused.

"Ye go first." Dad said patiently.

"No, no you go first." I insisted sitting down on the stairs.

"Alright, ye got yer wish: Dragon Training." Dad said, "Ye start in the mornin'."

"Oh man…" I muttered to myself trying not to panic, "I should've gone first…" then I spoke up.

"Are you sure Dad?" I asked innocently, "Don't you think we have a bit of a surplus of Dragon fighting Vikings? I mean…Do we have enough _bread making_ Vikings? Or _small home repair_ Vikings?" I was actually quite good at cooking and repairs. Dad never cooked because he's completely useless at that sort of thing and he likes my cooking too much. And I have fixed my fair share of leaks in the roof. I should've just kept my mouth shut for all the good it did me…

"Ye'll need this." Dad said-not even listening to me as usual…And dropped a big and really heavy axe into my arms. I grunted and fell back under its weight.

"I _really_ _don't_ want to kill Dragons." I said. Dad was about to say something then stopped. Maybe he was finally listening to me.

I should've known better…He burst out laughing as if I had just made a particularly good joke.

"O' course ye do!" he said still chuckling and walked back over to the hearth beginning to stoke it again.

"Dad." I said standing up somehow holding onto the axe, "Rephrase: I _can't_ kill Dragons!" I had already found that out first hand anyway.

"But ye _will_ kill Dragons." Dad insisted, "Ye'll learn all the basics."

"No Dad." I insisted, "I'm really, extra sure that I _won't_."

"It's time Hiccup." Dad said seriously completely ignoring me.

"_Can you not hear me_!" I bleated. Things were going exactly as I feared!

"This is serious son." Dad said turning to face me, "When ye carry this axe, ye not only carryin' yer own strength, but all of us as well. That means, ye walk like us, talk like us, and think like us." He made his point by tapping the side of his head.

"No more of this." He added gesturing to _all_ of me.

"You just gestured to all of me…" I said feeling extremely annoyed. What was it about me that everyone hated?

"Deal?" Dad asked.

I sighed exasperated, "This conversation is feeling _very_ one sided." I commented.

"Deal!" Dad asked a little louder this time.

"Deal…" I groaned in utter defeat.

"Good lad." Dad said he picked up a large basket and put on his long horned helmet (which had a notorious tendency to get stuck in the doorway) and headed for the front door, "Train hard. I'll be back…probably." He was off to go find the Dragon's Nest again…

"And…I'll be right here." I said, "_Maybe_." Dad left the house.

I stood where I was for a few minutes. I had just been enrolled into Dragon Training and in the morning, I would either get blasted to bits or eaten and I didn't know which I liked better.

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**If you're wondering why i didn't add in the Berk Meade Hall scene where Stoick is making plans to find Dragon Island it;s because, this fic is in first person, Hiccup wasn't in the Meade Hall at the time and he;s not psychic.**

**....**

**I' think I'm beginning to emulate Hiccup...Oh well at least this'll allow me to do his snarkniness justice.**

**Chocobo Scribe**


	3. I Nearly Get Blasted

**I was thinking of doing weekly updates, but with seeing how many people are reading this and since almost half of this was done when I finished Toothless's Tale I figured "Aw what the heck? I don;t want to keep my readers hanging" Please enoy!**

**Standard Disclaimers Apply R&R please!**

**0o0o0o0oo0o0o0o0**

**Chapter Three: I Nearly Get Blasted**

_And what, do you think you'd understand?_

_I'm a boy, no, I'm a man,_

_You can't take me and throw me away…_

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I woke up early the next day dreading what was to come. Sighing, I got out of bed and with deliberate slowness, proceeded through my morning routine in hopes I wouldn't have to deal with so much Dragon Training for the day. Unfortunately, Gobber happened to be walking by and started banging on the front door.

"Oy! Hiccup! Time for Dragon Training!" He shouted from outside.

I groaned, "Coming…" I said grudgingly hefting the axe in both hands and left the house through the front door. Astrid, Snotlout, Tuffnut, Ruffnut, and Fishlegs were also there with Gobber who started to lead us to the Kill Ring located in the back of town. I dragged my feet along the path making the gap between me and everyone else as large as I could and not fall too far behind.

_What did I get myself into?_ I thought, _I never should have gone on and on about wanting to fight Dragons all those years…I suddenly find out I don't want to fight Dragons and I get stuck in Dragon Training!_

We reached the Kill Ring. Gobber turned the crank opening the barred door and stepped inside.

"Welcome, to Dragon Training!" he said.

Astrid, Snotlout, Tuffnut, and Ruffnut all stepped in looking around at the cage roof above them.

"No turning back." Astrid said. She had been looking forward to this more than anything. I wouldn't have been surprised if she was up all night planning out a strategy.

"I hope I get some serious burns!" Tufffnut said adjusting his grip on his spear.

"I'm hoping for some mauling." Ruffnut said, "Like on my shoulder or lower back."

No surprise from those two. Tuffnut and Ruffnut are the craziest thrill seekers you will ever meet. Trust me; their idea of a good time is nearly getting killed.

"Yeah," Astrid said wryly, "It's only fun if you get a scar out of it."

"Yeah. No kidding." I said grudgingly stepping into the ring wishing I could anywhere but _here_, "Pain. Love it."I added sarcasm dripping from my voice. The others all turned to face me. They all looked at me as if I was a roach they just noticed next to their foot.

"Ugh. Who let _him_ in?" Tuffnut complained.

"Let's get started!" Gobber said energetically as if Tuffnut hadn't said anything, "The recruit who does the best in the class will win the honor of slaying their first Dragon before the _whole village_!" That got Astrid's attention alright. She was probably imagining the moment of victory.

"Well…Hiccup killed a Night Fury soooo….Does that disqualify him or..?" Snotlout asked trying to sound innocent. The others laughed.

"Can I transfer to the class with the _cool_ Vikings?" He then added which received even more laughs. Tuffnut was actually bent over clutching his stomach. I gritted my teeth trying not to let it get to me.

"Don' worry." Gobber said putting a hand on my shoulder, "Yer small, weak, not much of a target. The Dragons will go for the more Viking-like teens." Not very reassuring but at least I was slightly confident I could at least out run the Dragon fire shots. A moving target's harder to hit. We walked over to join the rest of the class. Gobber, with hands held behind his back began the lesson.

"Behind these doors are just a _few_ of the many species of Dragon you will learn how to fight." He passed a large barred door that was shaking violently, "The Deadly Nadder…"

"Speed…eight….Armor…sixteen." Fishlegs said breathlessly.

Gobber passed another even larger door that was also rattling on the hinges, "The Hideous Zippleback…"

"…Eleven stealth times two…" Fishlegs continued.

The third door Gobber passed was one of the largest and had smoke curling out from the gaps between door and wall, "The Monstrous Nightmare…"

"…Heat Temperature twenty five, Long Range Attack thirty…" Maybe Fishlegs actually _ate_ the Dragon Manual. Wouldn't have surprised me.

"And," Gobber said stopping before door with more bolts and locks than I could count and had the word 'WARNING' scribbled all over it in large, black, messy runes, "The Terrible Terror!"

"Attack eight…Venom…twelve…" Fishlegs would've said more but Gobber had finally reached his limit.

"WOULD YE STOP THAT!" he shouted at Fishlegs.

Gobber limped over to the last door that was being banged at so hard from behind you'd think there was a battering ram and an army behind it. He grasped the lever.

"And now, the Groncle." I braced myself for what was going to happen next.

"Jaw strength eight." Fishlegs whispered to me.

"Whoawhoawhoa wait!" Snotlout bleated in a panic, "Aren't you gonna _teach_ us first!"

Gobber doesn't believe in that sort of thing.

"I believe in learning on the job." Gobber said nonchalantly and pulled down the lever. I had firsthand experience with his teaching methods. I still remember the time I nearly chopped off my own foot the first time I used the grinding wheel.

As the doors opened, a large pig like Dragon-the Groncle burst out at top speed. It was covered in warts and a slight color of puce. It's wings were small, flapping in a blur like a hummingbird's. It was big and bulky, but it had very good maneuverability.

For a few seconds, the Groncle just hovered in place while I and the others recovered from the shock. Then, the Groncle dived at us and we scattered. Good thing I could outrun everyone else here!

"Today, is all about survival! If ye get blasted, yer dead." Gobber said as if we were discussing this over books and paper, "Quick! What's the first thing yer gonna need?"

"A doctor!" I blurted out.

"Plus five speed!" Fishlegs guessed.

"A shield!" Astrid shouted confidently.

"Right!" Gobber shouted, "Shield! Go!"

We all scrambled for the pile of shields in the middle of the ring.

"Yer most essential piece of equipment is a shield." Gobber said as Astrid and Snoutlout easily picked up their shields. I tried to pick one of them up but it wasn't easy while holding the axe Dad gave me. I leaned the axe against the shield and tried to push it onto my right arm. Gobber suddenly was there and shoved it onto my _left_ arm. He keeps forgetting I'm _left_ handed! Well…at least it was easier to hold onto the shield with my left arm.

"If ye must make a choice between a sword and a shield," Gobber continued to lecture while securing the shield onto my arm, "Take the shield!" and shoved me into the death zone.

Ruffnut and Tuffnut had both gone for the same shield-the one with skulls and flames no doubt-and were now both tugging at it furiously.

"Get your hands off my shield!" Tuffnut shouted.

"There's like a million shields!" Ruffneu grunted.

"Take that one it has a flower on it." Tuffnut said, "Girls like flowers-."

_THWAK!_

"OW!" Tuffnut shouted.

"Oooops." Ruffnut said feigning innocence, "Now _this_ one has _blood_ on it!"

They began bickering again completely oblivious to the Groncle that was zooming around the ring.

_BOOM!_

The Groncle released a fireball splintering the shield and sending Tuffnut and Ruffnut spinning to the ground.

"Tuffnut, Ruffnut, yer both out." Gobber said.

"What?" both twins said slightly dazed.

"Those shields are also good for another thing," Gobber continued, "Noise. Lot's of it! Use noise to throw off a Dragon's aim."

Immediately we all began banging our axes and hammers against our shields.

_WHACK! WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!_

The Groncle's eyes spun and it wobbled in midair as its vision began to blur. While Ruffnut and Tuffnut got back to their feet and started arguing again, Astrid, Snoutlout, Fishlegs and I ran around the Groncle making as much noise as we could.

Then I ran for cover.

"Every Dragon has a limited number of shots." Gobber continued on with his lecture, "How many does a Groncle have?"

"Five!" Snoutlout guessed as I dove behind the weapons rack.

"No! No! SIX!" Fishlegs shouted.

"Good!" Gobber said, "Thas' one fer each of ye!"

_BOOM!_

"Fishlegs out." Gobber said as Fishlegs started running with a loud "AAAHHHHHHHHH!"

"OY HICCUP!" Gobber shouted nearly making me jump out of my skin, "GET IN THERE!"

I started to sidle out from behind the weapons rack then the Groncle saw me and sent a fireball my way. I only just ducked back just in time! Now it only had four shots left. Soon as it was clear I sprinted out from the weapons rack banging my axe against my shield and running in a zig-zag pattern trying to make it as hard as possible for the Groncle to aim and fire at me.

And _now_ right when there's a Groncle flying after us, Snotlout thinks it's a great time to start flirting with Astrid. He was never that bright…

"So I'm moving into my parent's basement." Snoutlout said, "You should come by to workout, you look like you work out." Astrid completely ignored him and made a somersault dive to the side leaving Snotlout wide open. The Groncle saw its chance and…

_BOOM!_

Snotlout was blasted off his feet and flew back several feet as his shield splintered into pieces. Serve him right…

"Snoutlout yer done…" Gobber said almost bored. What was he waiting for? One of us to get blasted to bits? Or had he just taught way too many classes like this?

"HEEEYAAA!" Astrid cried out while rolling to the side to dodge the Groncle and was suddenly standing _right next_ to me.

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

"So…I guess it's just you and me now huh?" I commented as the Groncle hovered in front of us.

"Nope." Astrid said, "Just _you_." And sprinted away completely catching me by surprise.

"Wait what?" Next thing I knew…

_BOOM!_ The Groncle's fireball slammed into my shield splintering it and blasted me off my feet and I slammed into the stone walls of the Kill Ring. Seeing stars I tried to right myself and shook my head to clear the dizziness.

"One shot left." Gobber announced. Still slightly dazed, I didn't notice the Groncle flying right at me until it was almost in my face!

"HICCUP!" Gobber shouted. The Groncle opened its maw and I could already see the heated gas rise from its throat. I was about to be blasted! I froze any second the Groncle's last shot would make me nothing more than a black spot on the wall!

At the very last second, Gobber got his hook-hand into the Groncle's jaw and jerked its head to the side sending the fireball flying off to its left making a crater only inches from where I was.

"An' thas' six." Gobber grunted, "Go back to bed ye overgrown sausage…" He grumbled to the Groncle as he struggled to get it back into its cage. Once the Groncle was safely behind the cage doors and locked, Gobber turned to face us.

"Ye'll get another chance don' ye worry…" He said as we all tried to catch our breath. I stood up shakily looking at the crater the Groncle's fireball had made and a shiver went up my spine-yet another close shave with a Dragon. If Gobber hadn't gotten there when he did…I couldn't finish the thought.

"Remember." Gobber said importantly, "A Dragon will always…ALWAYS go for the _kill_."

Everyone stared at Gobber in a mix of stunned and impressed silence.

Gobber clapped his hands together, "Well, class dismissed." He led the way out of the kill ring. I followed everyone else at a distance. I didn't even hear the comments Snotlout was making about me running for cover. What Gobber had said about a Dragon always going for the kill had jogged my memory of the Night Fury from yesterday. My hand strayed back to the bruise on my throat left behind by the Night Fury's paw…

I had to go back to where I found the Night Fury. As soon as we were back in the village and everyone else was headed for the meade hall, I made my way back to the forest. Retracing my steps from yesterday wasn't that hard. Within minutes, I was back at the boulders where I found the Night Fury.

_"A Dragon will always…ALWAYS go for the kill."_ Gobber had said.

"So…" I said picking up the remains of the bola, "Why didn't you?" If Gobber was right, why didn't the Night Fury just incinerate me when it had the chance? Maybe it was because I spared its life? I continued walking down towards the direction the Night Fury had flown away. I saw some signs that it had crashed into the trees during its flight.

Eventually, I arrived at the edge of a small canyon. There was a pond, grass, and tree roots hanging down into it. It looked like a good place for fishing. It was completely empty.

"Well _this_ was stupid…"I muttered scoffing slightly, "It's probably long gone by-." I noticed something shiny on the rocks at my feet. I crouched down and lifted the object to get a better look.

_Dragon Scales…_I held the black scale in my hand, _It must have come from the Night Fury! But if it did where...?_

Suddenly, a dark object flew right past me startling me so much I fell back on my butt. I quickly crawled over to edge and there it was. The Night Fury. The Dragon kept taking off and crashing into the canyon walls no matter how hard it flapped its wings. I couldn't waste an opportunity like this. I leapt down to the ledge below me and pulled out my notebook and started making a sketch of the Night Fury. The Dragon made another attempt to escape but instead of just flying away like I expected, it seemed to be trying to just grab onto the ledge of the canyon walls and climb out, but the stone was too smooth for its paws.

"I don't get it…"I muttered quietly, "Why don't you just fly away?" I finished drawing out the tail. Then, I saw, the left tail fin was missing. The Night Fury tried again to escape but the poor thing crashed headfirst into the canyon wall. I scrubbed out the right tail fin in my sketch.

_I did this to you…_I couldn't help but feel sorry for it. The Night Fury bounded over to the pond trying to get some fish, but it had no luck as far as I could tell. I set my pencil down-which immediately rolled away and fell down into the canyon landing with a soft _thump._ I froze as the Night Fury stiffened and turned and saw me. It…no…he made no attempt to attack. He just stared at me as if asking "Who are you? Why are you here?"

The strangest thing was I didn't feel any fear a little maybe, but mostly a strong curiosity, fascination even. I wanted to know more about this Dragon. From all the tales I've heard about Night Furies, I didn't see or feel any of that. Slowly, not making any sudden moves, I stood up. The Night Fury blinked and stayed put. I turned around, and looking over my shoulder walked away from the canyon's edge. This had been the second time I encountered the Night Fury and this time he didn't even try to attack just stared at me curiously.

When I was back at the site of our first encounter I stopped. Was it just coincidence we met or something else? I looked at the sketch of the Night Fury I made again. The left tail fin must have been knocked off when I took him down with my bola ballistae. I felt a twinge of guilt. Sure, I had been brought up being told that killing a Dragon was the greatest thing ever-and never was able to understand how anyone could find killing so enjoyable. But now…I wasn't so sure about anything…

Thunder rumbled overhead. There was a storm coming. I tucked my notebook into my vest and started sprinting back to Berk. A few minutes later, it started to rain heavily and I was soaked within seconds. And the whole time, I kept wondering about the Night Fury…

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**And there's chapter three! Read and review please!**

**Chocobo Scribe**


	4. I Read About Dragons

**The fourth Chapter! Please enjoy!**

**Standard Disclaimers Apply R&R please!**

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**Chapter Four: I Read About Dragons**

_And how, can you learn what's never shown?_

_Yeah, you stand here on your own,_

_They don't know me,_

'_Cause I'm not here..._

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

By the time I got back to Berk night had fallen and I was soaked to the bone. I ran up the steps to the meade hall and opened the large double doors. Mostly everyone who had stayed in the village was here having dinner. Shivering slightly and dripping wet I went over to the table where Gobber was lecturing the rest of the class.

"Now, what did Astrid do wrong?" Gobber quizzed.

"I mistimed my somersault dive." Astrid said bitterly, "It was sloppy. Threw off my reverse tumble."

"No, no." Snotlout said trying to come to Astrid's rescue, "It was great. It was totally you Astrid." His attempt crashed and burned. I picked up a plate of food and a mug of slightly watered down mead and walked over to an empty table.

"And what did Hiccup do wrong?" Gobber said as I passed.

"Uh…He showed up?" Tuffnut said.

"He didn't get eaten?" Ruffnut said.

"He's never where he should be." Astrid said coldly.

I tried not to let it get to me, but their words still stung. Especially Astrid's. I completely lost my appetite after what she said. Suddenly, getting eaten didn't sound so bad. I almost would rather be back with the Night Fury. I picked at my food feeling a little sick.

"Thas' right." Gobber said to me in particular, "Ye have to be tough on yeselves. Ye need to live an' breathe this stuff." He held up and old leather bound book.

"The Dragon Manual. Everything we know about every Dragon we know of." Gobber said, thunder sounded from outside and the sound of rain pounding the roof, "No attacks tonight. Study up." Gobber limped away from the table for a drink.

"Wait…"Tuffnut said slightly startled, "You mean…_read_?" Telling him to read was almost the same thing as giving a death sentence.

"While we're still alive?" Ruffnut said as if wondering Gobber had gone completely insane.

"Why read words when you can just kill the stuff the words tell you…stuff…about?" Snoutlout said stupidily.

"Oh! Oh!" Fishlegs said excitedly, "I've read it like seven times! There's this Dragon that squirts boiling water right at your face and…and…this other one that burries itself for a-."

Tuffnut cut him off.

"Yeah. There _was_ a chance I might read that but…"

"_You_ guys read." Snotlout grunted standing up, "_I'll_ go kill stuff." What was it with him and killing stuff? I can't believe we're actually related…Tuffnut and Ruffnut got up and left too muttering something about if they needed to know anything they'd just ask Fishlegs. Fishlegs finished the last bits of his dinner and got up to follow Tuffnut and Ruffnut. That left me and Astrid alone.

"So…" I said awkwardly getting up to join her, "Are we gonna share or..?" She pushed the book towards me not even looking at me.

"Already read it." She said and got up to leave as well.

"Oh." I said trying to cover up my disappointment, "Wow. All mine. Well uhh…see you…tomorrow…" I finished lamely as the door shut behind her. I looked at the Dragon Manual picked it up and dropped it back onto the table. I would come back later after I dried off. Leaving my dinner uneaten I left the meade hall and made my way to my house. The hearth was smoldering slightly, I picked up a pair of tongs and started stoking the coals adding another log. Once the flames were up, I took off my vest and hung it up near the hearth to dry. I went up to my room to get some dry clothes and after drying off got changed. I pulled out a cloak and went back down. My vest had dried so I put it back on. I put my cloak on and grabbed a lantern and lit it. I pulled my hood over my head and left my house to return to the meade hall.

I got inside just in time. The moment I set foot in the meade hall, it started hailing. The meade hall was deserted. Great, privacy while I did my homework. Always found it hard to concentrate on one thing when there was other stuff going on around me anyway…I set the lantern down on the table and pulled my hood back and took off my cloak and dropped it next to me on the bench. I sat down and pulled the Dragon Manual towards me and opened it.

"Dragon Classifications:" I muttered reading out loud, "Strike Class, Fear Class, Mystery Class." I turned the page. On the next page was a drum shaped Dragon with small wings and no limbs.

"Thunder Drum." I read, "This reclusive Dragon inhabits sea-caves and dark tide pools. When startled, the Thunder Drum produces a concussive sound that can kill a man at short range. Extremely dangerous. Kill on sight." I turned the next page. This one showed a large Dragon with a serpent body, no arms or legs but very large wings.

"The Timber Jack. This gigantic creature has razor sharp wings that can cut through fully grown forests. Extremely dangerous. Kill on sight." I turned the next page. A Dragon with a turtle like head and spewing out water was drawn on the next page.

"Scaldron." This must have been the one Fishlegs had mentioned earlier, "Sprays scalding water at its victims. Extremly-."

_BOOM!_

"AGH!" I jumped in my seat and turned around. It was just thunder and lightning outside. The wind must have caused the door to open and then bang shut. Catching my breath I turned back to the Dragon Manual and turned the page.

"Change Wing, even hatchlings can spray acid. Kill on sight." I read. I kept turning pages. Groncle, Napper, Terrible Terror, ZippleBack, Monstrous Nightmare, Bone-Napper, Whispering Death. Nearly all of the Dragons were classified as "Extremely Dangerous" and all of them had "Kill on sight" written underneath in large black runes.

Some of the Dragons had _really_ nasty ways of dealing with their victims, "Burns its victims…buries its victims…chokes its victims…turns its victims inside out…"I read, "Extremely dangerous… Extremely dangerous… Extremely dangerous…Kill on sight…Kill on sight." I turned to an almost empty page. At the top were the words "Night Fury". I began reading the small amount of information there was.

"Size: Unknown. Speed: Unknown." I read, "The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself. _Never_ engage this Dragon. Your only chance: Hide and pray it does not find you." The words "hide and pray" and "never" were written in large runes and underlined heavily. Nobody had ever seen the Night Fury and lived to tell the tale. I pulled out my notebook and opened it to the sketch of the Night Fury and set it down on top of the Dragon Manual.

_Nobody, except me._ Those few lines that supposedly described the Night Fury; I didn't see any of that. Not even the "unholy offspring of lightning and death" part.

Having read enough I picked up my lantern and put my cloak back on. I opened the doors of the meade hall to leave. It had stopped hailing and started raining again; sometimes the weather just couldn't make up its mind…I pulled my hood up and dashed through the village to my house to avoid getting soaked again. By the time I was inside, it had stopped raining.

"Cold…" I shivered slightly and hung the cloak up to dry. I made sure the hearth was out before I went upstairs to turn in for the night. Before getting into bed I opened the window, the clouds had parted showing the stars and the lights of the gods shimmering in the night sky. A shooting star shot across the sky.

_I wonder if I'll see the Night Fury again?_ I closed the window and got into bed.

The next day at Dragon Training we were going to be working with the Deadly Nadder. A maze had been set up in the Kill Ring. Our lesson was going to be all about speed. Good thing I was fast, but not so good that I'm such a klutz at the worst possible moments.

"Alright." Gobber said from outside the Kill Ring, "Take yer places, I'm lettin' the Dragon out." And opened the cage door. A bright blue bird like dragon with yellow wings and a spiked tail burst out at full speed! The Deadly Nadder had no arms and if the tail spikes out, you'd better run away fast because it can shoot spikes out from its tail.

I sprinted down one of the pathways through the maze and happened to glance up and saw Gobber.

"Hey!" I called up, "I noticed that the Dragon Manual didn't have much stuff on Night Furies. Is there like amother book? A sequel? Or a little Night Fury pamphlet?"

I know what you're thinking. Shouldn't I have asked _before_ training started or saved my questions for _after_? I do impulsive things and when a question pops into my head I have to ask right away or I'll forget it.

_BOOM!_

"AGH!"

Suddenly, my axe became considerably lighter. I looked ahead and saw the Nadder charging right at me!

"Focus Hiccup!" Gobber scolded as I yelped and tried to decide to run either left or right, "Ye not even tryin'!" I decided to run left. I heard the others also running through the maze while the Nadder flew around above us and land to try and incinerate us!

"Today," Gobber said, "Is all about ATTACK! Nadders are fast and light on their feet. _You_ have to be faster and lighter."

I heard a loud snapping noise and then Fishlegs yelp.

"I'M REALLY BEGINNING TO QUESTION YOUR TEACHING METHODS!" He shouted.

I would raise a few objections to how Gobber goes about teaching, but after being his apprentice at the forge for the most of my seventeen years, I just started to go with it.

"Look for its blind spot." Gobber said continuing to lecture us from the safety of outside the Kill Ring while we were all running for our lives, "Every Dragon has one. Find it. Hide in it. Then Strike!"

I ran past Ruffnut and Tuffnut who had just found the Nadder's blind spot and then started arguing. This time about Tuffnut's bathing habits. Was there _anything_ those two didn't argue about?

"Errguh...Do you _ever_ bathe? You stink..." Ruffnut grumbled.

"Breathe it in sis." Tuffnut said.

"You _really_ stink y'know..."

"Well if you don't like it, _GET YOUR OWN BLINDSPOT!"_

"WHY DON'T _I_ GIVE _YOU_ ONE!"

_BOOM!_

"AAAAAAGGHHH!"

"Blind spot yes." Gobber said in a bored voice, "Death spot not so much."

Another question popped into my head. Go ahead say it. I'm hopelessly impulsive.

"Hey!" I shouted again, "So, how would one sneak up on a Night Fury?"

Gobber raised his eyes to Heaven, "Nobody's tried and lived to tell the tale..." Except me, "NOW GET IN THERE!"

"I know! I know!" I said staring to edge back into the fray, "But just…Hypothetically speaking…" I turned and saw Astrid and Snotlout crouched behind their shields against one of the maze wall. Astrid violently motioned for me to _"Get down!"_ I quickly joined them and did likewise. Astrid peered around the wall then after a few seconds rolled across the gap getting behind the wall ahead of us then motioned for me and Snotlout to follow. Snotlout had no problem of course. I followed and landed flat on my back halfway through my roll.

Right in front of the Nadder.

I quickly sprang up and scrambled out of the way before it could chomp down on me. The Nadder leapt up again and landed in a different area of the maze.

"Don't worry babe, I got this." I heard Snotlout say in yet another one of his doomed attempts to impress Astrid. Snotlout let out a loud "HA!" then there was the sound of a hammer hitting wood.

Snotlout had missed the Nadder by a mile. The Nadder made a funny groweling sound that could have been laughing.

"The sun was in my eyes Astrid!" Snotlout said defensively, "What do you want me to do? Block out the sun? I _could_ do that, but I don't have time right now!"

The Nadder roared and let out a plume of flames. Snotlout yelped and ran for it. I kept running down the maze pathways and yet _another_ question popped right into my head.

"Has anyone seen a Night Fury _napping_?" I shouted up to Gobber as I ran past. No answer. He must have been ignoring me by now. Astrid had leapt up on top of one of the maze walls to escape the Nadder. She yelled, I stopped to look and the Nadder knocked her right off the wall!

Before I could even react Astrid landed right on top me knocking me to the ground.

"OW!" the back of head banged against the stone floor of the Kill Ring and while I was seeing stars Astrid was struggling to free herself.

"Ooooo…" Tuffnut sneered as the smoke cleared, "Love on the battle field."

"She could do better…" Ruffnut commented.

Jerks.

Astird glared at Ruffnut and Tuffnut murderously and tugged at her axe-which had gotten stuck in my shield. My right arm was pinned while Astrid tried to get back to her feet and my shield was still strapped to my other arm.

"Let me go!" Astrid shouted.

"Why don't you let _me_ go!" The words just came of their own accord.

Somehow we managed to get disentangled and Astrid was able to get back to her feet. She yanked at her axe which was stuck really good into my shield.

"OW!" I shouted she nearly ripped my arm off! I tried to get the shield off my arm but Astrid just put her foot on my face and pulled! My shield was ripped off my arm and nearly was ripped out of its socket.

"HAAAAA!" Astrid yelled as she charged the Nadder. I curled into a ball on the ground and covered my head.

_WHAM!_

The Nadder whimpered and I heard it scuttle away back into its cage.

"Hey." Astrid snapped. I removed my arms from my head and looked up. She didn't look too happy…

"Is this some kind of joke to you!" She demanded, "We're about to inherit our parents' war. Figure out whose side you're on." She made her point by shoving her axe in my face.

Only thing was, I was sure I wasn't on _either_ side.

They all left the Kill Ring. I hung back as they left thinking things over. I glanced over at the pile of unused shields.

"I must be out of my mind…" I muttered to myself as I picked one up and ran back into Berk picking up a large cod from the pickling barrel outside my house and went into the forest about to do what would probably be the most impulsive thing in my life.

I was going to visit the Night Fury again. This time, I was going to try to make contact. I didn't care if I ended up getting eaten.

No one would miss me.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

**Hmmm...Hiccup's gonna have to eat his words eventually...**

**Well, the Forbidden Friendship scene is coming up next! Stay tuned!**

**Chocobo Scribe**


	5. I Name My Dragon Toothless

**Whew! I just finished my physics final and I'm beat! But I had enough energy to post the next chapter! This was a little trickier to write than in the Toothless version. So I just did the same, listen to the soundtrack and watched the Forbidden Friendship scene on youtube! I was quite pleased with the results.**

**Standard disclaimers apply. R&R please!**

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o**

**Chapter Five: I Name My Dragon Toothless**

_And I want a moment to be real,_

_Want to touch things I don't feel,_

_Wanna hold on and feel I belong._

_And how can the world want me to change?_

_They're the ones that stay the same,_

_They don't know me,_

'_Cause I'm not here…_

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

It didn't take too long to find the canyon where the Night Fury was trapped. After walking around for a while I managed to find several small ledges that led down to the base of the canyon. I took a deep breath, and strapping the shield to my back leapt down the stone ledges. Once I got to the canyon floor, I hefted the shield onto my arm and holding the fish in the other, slowly made my way to the canyon entrance. I stopped a few feet from the opening and threw the fish in.

I waited, nothing happened. I stepped forwards, and the shield got stuck between two of the rocks. I stood up trying to push the shield through, but it was good and stuck. I gave up seconds later and crawled under the shield into the canyon. I stood upright, brushed the dirt off my clothes and stooped down to pick up the fish.

I walked forwards glancing around looking for the Night Fury. He wasn't anywhere to be seen. I kept walking forwards turning around trying to find the Night Fury.

Then I had the feeling that I was being watched. I turned and out of the corner of my eyes, I saw him! The Night Fury was perched on a large rock watching me warily. I jolted back a few steps but managed to regain my footing. The Night Fury crawled down the rock cat like and approached me as I held out the fish.

The Night Fury stiffened then retreated growling.

Then I remembered. I still had my dagger at my belt! Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! Why didn't I leave it behind? I shifted my vest to show my dagger so the Night Fury would know it was there. The Night Fury growled at me louder showing his fangs. I lowered my hand to remove my dagger from my belt. The Night Fury growled again and my hand jerked away.

_No…I won't hurt you…_Slowly, I grasped the tip of the hilt in my fingertips and pulled the dagger from my belt. I held the weapon at arm's length and dropped it to the ground. The Night Fury didn't stop growling.

_I'm not done yet…_I scooped the dagger up with my right foot and balancing on my left kicked it into the pond where it landed with a _splash_! Now I was unarmed. Almost immediately the Night Fury relaxed and sat down on his hind legs looking at me with large expectant eyes. I almost laughed. For all the horror stories of Night Furies I've heard, The Night Fury looked almost like a puppy.

I held the fish out once more and the Night Fury prowled over to me cat like.

_That's it…_The Night Fury was at arm's length from me and opened his jaws expectantly. His teeth were gone! Didn't he have teeth when he growled at me?

"Toothless…" I said then I frowned confused, "I could've sworn you had-." Without warning white fangs shot out of the Night Fury's gums and snatched the fish right out of hands!

"WHOA!" He chomped down on the fish once and swallowed. He licked his lips with a thick slightly forked tongue looking pretty happy.

"…Teeth…" I finished a little stunned. Even though I nearly had my fingers bitten off, I still couldn't believe it. A Dragon had actually eaten out of my hands! The Night Fury lowered his large black head and advanced on me. He must have thought I had more! And I didn't…

"Ahh…" I staggered backwards away from the Dragon, "Ahhh…No…no…no…" I lost my balance and fell and crawled away backwards until I was up against one of the large boulders in the canyon. The Night Fury was almost nose to nose with me!

"I…I…I don't have any more!" I said leaning back as far as I could. He wasn't going to eat _me_ now was he! The Night Fury stared at me for a few seconds then pulled back a little then started making a strange gagging sound.

_Hlllk….Hlllk….Hlllk…_

The Dragon's eyes rolled back slightly and gagged again.

_Hlllk….Hlllk….Hllllk…BLAH!_

The Night Fury opened his mouth and half of the fish I gave him slid down his tongue and right into my lap. I stared down at the fish tail stunned. It was covered in Dragon drool and pale green slime.

"Uhhhh…?" I hadn't expected this at all. Why had the Dragon coughed up the fish tail into my lap? I looked up. The Night Fury rose up onto his hind legs and sat down, mimicking, me. I sat upright against the boulder holding the fish tail in my hands.

_What do you want me to do?_ I stared at the Night Fury, who was staring right back at me with large expectant eyes. An awkward silence followed. The Night Fury glanced down at the fish in my hands then at me.

_What?_ I glanced at the fish, then at the Night Fury, then at the fish again, _You can't be serious…_I sighed, thinking it would be best not to offend the Night Fury. I raised the fish tail to my mouth, opened wide, and took a huge bite.

It tasted _disgusting_….

"Mmmmm…" I said while chewing trying to at least look like I was enjoying the fish. The Night Fury had been looking at me like he would start crying if I didn't eat. I never thought that a Dragon, much less the Night Fury, would give me the "puppy eyes".

The Night Fury's ears perked up as if asking me if I liked the fish.

"Mmm-hmmm…" I said through a mouthful of fish, nodding and held the fish out to the Night Fury hoping that he'd take it.

The Night Fury swallowed.

I dropped my arms from shock.

_Are you kidding me!_ I looked up, thought about it, and swallowed. My stomach lurched and I nearly vomited. I doubled over pressing a hand to my mouth hoping that the Night Fury wouldn't see that I was about to be sick. Somehow I managed to force the fish down. I swallowed again and sitting upright I gasped and shuddered. The taste of the partially digested fish was still in my mouth. The Night Fury's tongue came out and he smacked his lips slightly.

And despite that, I couldn't help but smile. The Night Fury looked at me titling his head then, the corners of his mouth started twitching. Was he trying to smile too?

After looking like he was having some difficulty, the Night Fury managed to smile back, without his teeth. He actually looked pretty silly…I immediately thought of a name.

Toothless.

I know, why name my Dragon "Toothless" when he actually has teeth? Seeing him without his teeth just stuck in my head. And why am I suddenly thinking of Toothless as _my_ Dragon?

I don't know. I just felt a kind of connection to him.

On impulse, I slowly started to stand up and reached my hand out to pet Toothless's nose. Toothless's smile vanished and he growled at me bearing his fangs and flew away to the other side of the pond landing roughly. I walked over to the edge of the pond as he picked himself up. All the fear had gone from me. I wanted to get to know Toothless.

Toothless spun in a tight circle breathing fire on the ground and after patting down the warm soil, lay down. I slowly approached trying not to make a sound. I sat down cross legged a few feet away from him. The sound of a bird caught his attention and watched it fly away and noticed me sitting there next to him. Toothless gave me a withering look flattening hid ears and looked away closing his eyes. He shifted and swung his tail around covering his face.

I scooted closer.

I leaned forward trying to touch the tip of Toothless's tail. I knew that Dragons were reptiles, but they breathed fire, so would they feel cold or warm? That was something I always wanted to know. I was just about to touch his tail when he swung his tail up! Toothless looked at me really annoyed. I shot up to my feet and spun around on one foot and walked away stiffly trying to look like I hadn't been doing anything.

I was sure I had done an extremely bad job of it…

Once there was some distance between us, I turned around to see Toothless leap up to an overhanging tree root. He grasped the root with his feet and looped his tail over and folded his wings around his body.

_He looks like a bat…_I stepped closer almost directly underneath Toothless. He didn't respond. He must have fallen asleep.

_Alright,_ I thought, _I'll wait._ It looked like I was going to have to wait for Toothless come to me. I didn't care how long I had to wait. Even if I stayed here all night, nobody would come wondering where I wandered off to. I walked over to the other side of the pond to wait. I glanced over my shoulder at Toothless again, he was still sound asleep as far as I could tell. I sat down on a rock and picking up a stick started absentmindedly drawing in the dirt.

Several hours passed by. I just kept drawing not really noticing how much time had gone by. Most of my doodles were nondescript and I wiped them away to start drawing again. I rested my chin in my right hand as I started drawing again. I started drawing Toothless.

I sensed something behind me. I looked out of the corner of my eye and saw Toothless watch me draw. I returned to my drawing. I drew in the rest of the head, added the flaps on the cheeks, nostrils, and then last, drew in the eyes. As I finished, I heard Toothless walk away. I turned around to watch him trying to uproot a tree sapling. With a jerk of his head be broke it off and bounded back over to where I was.

Toothless planted the sapling on the ground and began dragging it along in the dirt as he spun around me. He was trying to draw too! I watched him amazed as he dashed this way and that and spinning making swirls and circles on the ground. He passed by me again and the branches of his sapling whacked me on the back of my head. Toothless dashed forwards spinning as he went then looked at his drawing and seeming satisfied, tossed his sapling aside to admire his work.

I had no idea what it was…But I was pretty impressed anyway. Who would've guessed that a Dragon could draw? I stood up looking at the lines and started to walk to get a better look when Toothless suddenly growled!

My foot shot up! Toothless's face changed from a snarl to a more innocent expression and his eyes became large again. I must have stepped on one of the lines. Or…was it because Toothless thought I was walking away? Balancing on one foot, I slowly lowered my other foot to the line. Toothless growled again. I lifted my foot, and Toothless made a sound a lot like purring. Once more I lowered my foot to the line; that might have been pushing it. Toothless looked like he was about to attack and I did _not_ want to get eaten for walking on a drawing. I lifted my foot again and stepped _across_ the line.

I looked down at my feet then at Toothless. He had gotten his relaxed look back.

_Alright._ I thought, _I'll trust you._ I looked down at my feet again and stepped into the next empty space, and the next. I didn't really have any sense of direction as I navigated the empty spaces. I just set my foot down in whatever empty space I saw next.

It like I was dancing-no…flying…

I was free…

Nothing could restrain me…

I was light as air…

I set my feet down in the next empty space and the next. I turned around once, twice, three times. I stepped into the last empty space and felt warm breath on the back of my neck. I turned and gasped. Toothless was standing right behind me. He looked impressed that I navigated through the drawing without stepping on the lines.

Again, on impulse, I slowly reached my hand out to Toothless. Toothless growled slightly looking uncertain. I drew my hand back. I had to show Toothless I meant him no harm. I closed my eyes and turned my head away and once more held my hand out to Toothless.

I didn't care if he bit my whole arm off.

I trusted Toothless.

I just wanted him to know that.

_I won't hurt you..._I thought willing Toothless to understand.

Something warm and soft touched my palm. Warmth ran right down my arm and I gasped opening my eyes and I turned to look…

My hand was resting against Toothless's nose. Toothless opened his eyes and we looked at each other straight in the eyes. It was only for an instant, but it felt like we already understood everything about each other. Toothless snorted, drew back, and ran over to the other side of the pond; leaving me standing where I was wondering if it had all really happened, or if I was dreaming. After a few seconds, I started to leave, retrieving my pencil along the way. Just before leaving through the opening where my shield was wedged into I turned around to see Toothless watching me.

"I'll see you tomorrow Toothless." I said. I then turned to my shield and crawled under it then stood up and this time after several grunts and a lot of heaving managed to get it free. I strapped the shield onto my back and climbed up the stone ledges. Once I got to the top, I turned back around and waved good-bye to Toothless then turned and started on my way back to Berk, feeling happier than I ever felt in years.

I had finally found a friend.

It was almost dark by the time I got back to Berk. I managed to stash the shield in my house before anyone noticed me. I was about to go upstairs when Gobber knocked at the door. I ran down to answer.

"Ah, Hiccup the rest of the class and I are goin' to one of the watch towers for dinner," he said, "Come along."

I actually _didn't_ want to but Gobber dragged me along anyway. He was probably going to just tell us the story about how he lost his leg and hand. And I had it burned into my memory-though…sometimes he said the Dragon had a horrible stomach ache when it ate his hand other times, said the Dragon thought he was tasty. I never saw it happen, but I was _pretty_ sure that the Dragons that ate his hand and leg both had horrible indigestion afterwards.

And there we were, sitting around the watchtower hearth roasting chicken and fish over the fire while Gobber regaled the class with his story.

"…An' with one twist, the Dragon chomped my hand clean off!" Gobber said dramatically, "An' when I saw the look on his face, I knew it. I was _delicious_! An' he must have spread the word, because it wasn't a month later when another Dragon took my leg!"

The rest of the class gasped in amazement. It was their first time hearing the story; I on the other hand had heard it several times before and it always changed slightly with every telling. I only listened with half an ear, still thinking about Toothless. A Dragon, the Night Fury…had actually allowed me touch him. I knew that in that one moment, there was a whole other side to Dragons-one that was never seen. Probably because the only times Dragons came to Berk we were at each other's throats.

"Isn't that weird…"Fishlegs said, "To think that your hand was inside a Dragon? Just think, if your mind was still in control of it, you could kill the Dragon from the inside by crushing its heart or something…"

The rest of us all looked at Fishlegs with a mix of disgust and annoyance. Everyone except me. I was still lost in thought. Toothless couldn't fly…and it was _my_ fault. I just stared at my fish and then I remembered that Toothless couldn't even get a decent meal from the fish in the pond. My stomach tightened into a big guilty knot.

Snotlout threw down his skewer, "UGH! I'm SO angry right now!" he turned to face Gobber, "I'll avenge your beautiful hand and your beautiful foot! I'll cut off the legs of every Dragon I meet. With my _face_!"

Yet another brilliant plan Snotlout.

"No," Gobber said ripping off the wings of the whole chicken he was roasting, "It's the wings and the tailfins ye want. Without those, a Dragon can't fly. Remember, a downed Dragon is a dead Dragon."

My blood went cold.

Gobber yawned, "Well, I'd best get to bed, an' so should all of ye too." I while everyone was facing Gobber, I quietly stood up setting my fish down and quickly ran down the steps of the watch tower-no one even notticed, "Tomorrow, we start getting to the big boys, slowly but surely, working our way up to the Monstrous Nightmare. But _who_ will have the honor of killing it?"

"It's gonna be me." Tuffnut said, "It's my destiny look!"

Fishlegs gasped, "Your mom let you get a tattoo?"

"It's not a tattoo!" Tuffnut snapped irritably, "It's a birthmark!"

"Okay…" Ruffnut said, "I've been stuck with you since birth and that was never there."

"You just never saw me from the left side before!"

I reached the bottom of the watchtower and immediately ran over to the forge. I knew that nobody would bother me. My occasional all nighters at the forge weren't that unusual. Once I was inside the forge I went over to the desk where all my notes and sketches that wouldn't fit in my room were, I took out my notebook and the sketches of Toothless I had made the other day and opened my notebook to the sketch of Toothless. I carefully drew back in the left tail fin and taking out a larger piece of parchment carefully redrew the tailfin to full size.

After carefully looking over the sketch, I put on a blacksmith's apron and got the fire going. After working the bellows and while the coals were heating up, I gathered all the swords and shields that couldn't be repaired. Soon as the coals were hot enough I put one of the banged up swords into the coals to soften. Once the metal was soft enough, I hammered it into shape until it resembled the bone of a Dragon's tailfin. I dunked the metal into the cooling barrel causing a large cloud of steam to shoot out. Once it was cool enough, I weighed the metal "bone" in my hands expertly making sure it wasn't too heavy. I repeated the process with the other swords making each metal "bone" progressively shorter.

Once all the metal bones were made I wrenched off the screws on the shields and began forging them into components that would connect the metal "bones". It took nearly all night. The last step: securing a large flap of leather over the metal frame. When fully opened, it resembled Toothless's missing tailfin. Satisfied, I folded it shut.

_Time for you get back to flying Toothless._

I doused the fire and took the prosthetic tailfin with me back to my house. Yawning I made my way back to my room and when I collapsed on the bed, I was asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o00o0o0o0**

**Get lots of rest Hiccup! Training begins in Chapter Six!**

**I notticed that in some other fics Toothless is described as an overgorwn cat with wings, well...since I never had a cat due to me being allergic, I had to go int he overgrown puppy with wings. I;m sure all my fellow dog lovers were reminded of our dogs when we saw Toothless :3.**

**Chocobo Scribe signing off! See you in Chapter Six!**


	6. I Train My Dragon

**SCHOOL'S OUT! and to celebrate the end of my finals I have posted up a new chapter!**

**I really wish I knew about the divider lines earlier!**

**Standard Disclaimers apply R&R please!**

* * *

**Chapter Six: I Train My Dragon**

_And you,_

_See the things they never see,_

_All you wanted I could be,_

_Now you know me,_

_And I'm not afraid…_

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

I woke up extra early the next day. As soon as I was awake, I grabbed the prosthetic tail fin and threw on my vest and boots and ran downstairs grabbing a large basket. Before heading into the forest, I ran down to the docks and got as much fish as I could get my hands on. We always have a bit of surplus of fish in Berk so a basketful missing would go unnoticed. I even stopped by the smoking house to get a smoked eel. I didn't like eel much myself, but maybe Toothless would like it.

I made my way through the village without running into anybody; mostly everyone was still asleep or just starting to get up for breakfast. And speaking of which, I was sure that Toothless would want something to eat, especially after being stuck in that canyon for the past few days with almost nothing to eat. With the basketful of fish slung over my shoulder and the prosthetic tail fin under my arm I made my way through the forest to Toothless's canyon.

Getting down was a little difficult with the basket-which was rather heavy. But at least I didn't fall and break my neck. That almost happened one time when I tried to build a prosthetic foot that would operate more like a foot using a spring. I was sure Gobber wouldn't try it so I tested it myself by tying it to my knee and when I tried going downstairs, I tumbled down and broke my leg. Dad wasn't too happy about that I can tell you…

I leapt down to the bottom of the canyon grunting under the weight of the basket and headed over to where Toothless was curled up asleep.

"Hey Toothless," I said soon as I was close enough, "I brought you some breakfast!"

At the word "breakfast" Toothless's eyes snapped open and he came bounding over eagerly. I dropped the basket heavily onto the ground.

"I hope you're hungry." I grunted tipping the basket over with my foot causing all the fish to come tumbling out. It was rather disgusting…I carefully stepped around the pile of fish as Toothless approached sniffing at the fish.

"I never told you my name did I?" I said while Toothless sniffed at the fish, "My name's Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III." Now we both had ridiculous sounding name. Toothless kept sniffing at the fish seemingly trying to decide which one to eat first.

"There's salmon, Icelandic Cod, oh and a whole smoked eel too." I said.

Toothless cringed and started growling at the eel. I reached down and lifted the eel in my thumb and forefinger. Toothless watched me as if he couldn't believe I'd actually touch an eel.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

Toothless let out a terrified shriek and cringed back flapping his wings! I wasn't sure why, but he was afraid of the eel! I jolted slightly at the sight of a terrified Night Fury.

"It's okay! It's okay!" I shouted then turned and threw the eel as far away from me as I could then turned back to Toothless, "I don't like eel much either, tastes horrible." I couldn't figure out why Toothless would be afraid of an eel. Maybe he was stung by one when he was little. Toothless calmed down and chomped down on a cod and started eating. I took a few steps around Toothless towards his tail.

"You just eat, I'll be back here minding my own business…" I said carefully steeping over to Toothless's tail. I knelt down next to his tail and looked up. He was still busy eating the fish. I started to slide the prosthetic tail fin next to his tail when it shifted away. I pushed the prosthetic tailfin forward again and the tail moved again. I tried again and his tail jerked upward.

"Ah!" I yelped, "It's okay…" Toothless's tail was still wiggling about so I tried to hold it down. His tail slid from side to side under me as I tried to keep it still. While holding his tail down with one hand, I reached for the prosthetic tailfin with my other.

Toothless, who had finished eating most of the fish stuck his whole head into the basket to get more and dragged me forward a few feet.

"AGH!" I grunted losing my grip on Toothless's tail and falling flat on my face. Frustrtated, I picked myself up and sat down on his tail and pulled the prosthetic tail fin next to it. I undid the belts I attached to the prosthetic tailfin and slid it under and around Toothless's tail fastening it on securely so it wouldn't fall off. After I was done with the first, I leaned forwards and repeated with the second one. While I was buckling the prosthetic tailfin on, Toothless's tail wriggled under me slightly and his remaining tailfin flapped thumping against my elbow. Grunting I made sure that both straps were secure, then sat upright to admire my handiwork. I spread the prosthetic tail fin out; it was an exact leather replica.

"Huh…nothing bad…" I said, "It just might work…"

There was a sudden rush of air behind me, a violent jerk backwards, and the next thing I knew the ground was falling away from below me! I yelled and wrapped my arms and legs around Toothless's tail hanging on for dear life!

"! NOOOOOO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO!" I wailed as we continued to climb higher and higher into the air! Toothless must have thought his missing tailfin had grown back when he felt the weight of the leather one I made.

Speaking of which…was it working?

I looked at the prosthetic tailfin, it seemed to be working but it was starting to collapse on itself. It was nearly folded back and Toothless and I started to fall! With another yell I reached out and pulled the prosthetic tail fin open. Toothless swooped out of his fall and we were out of the canyon.

We were high above Berk and even though I was clinging for dear life to Toothless's tail I couldn't help but be amazed by the view. I glanced over my shoulder and sure enough, Toothless was flying normally!

"Oh my gods!" I shouted utterly amazed, "I-It's working!" I shifted the prosthetic tail fin to the left causing Toothless to bank right and back to Berk. He swooped upwards and for one stomach lurching moment I ended up upside down and we were back in the canyon soaring over the pond.

"Y-yes…YES!" I cheered, "I DID IT!" I almost couldn't believe it! I had helped Toothless fly again! I didn't even care that my first flight on a Dragon had been hanging on to his tail. I gaped at the prosthetic tailfin with a huge smile on my face as we continued to soar over to pond.

At least until Toothless noticed me hanging onto his tail.

With a violent lurch, Toothless swung his tail to the left and I went flying off! I bounced across the water's surface before landing with a huge _splash! _A huge flurry of bubbles ahead of me told me that Toothless ha also fallen into the pond. Still, I had my success.

I resurfaced jumping up and punching the air.

"YES!" I cheered and swam over to the shore and pulled myself out not even caring that I was sopping wet. Toothless had been able to fly-at least until he threw me off his tail. With the prosthetic tail fin, he could fly but not alone. He was going to need some extra help.

My help.

"Now…I just need to figure out how to stabilize flight…" I muttered excitedly, "…Might need to make a saddle…" I muttered some more thinking of how I was going to go about making the saddle. I was almost starting to sound like Fishlegs.

"…Now… if there's some way I can maintain movement of the prosthetic tailfin…" I said thinking, "…maybe if I attached a cord to the prosthetic tailfin maybe I can…" I turned and noticed Toothless standing next to me giving me a look that clearly said: "You're scaring me. Are you really alright?"

Slightly embarrassed, I laughed feebly, "Uh…I'll see you later today then?" I said sheepishly. I turned to leave but before I took two paces, Toothless swung his tail around blocking my progress. I turned back to face him, he clearly wanted to make extra sure I hadn't gone completely crazy. I chuckled slightly.

"Toothless, I'm fine really." I said patting him on the side of his head, "Besides, I need to dry off." Toothless let me go after that but he followed me back to the entrance of the canyon. I picked up the eel as I went and nearly fell over laughing at the look he was giving me. Like, he couldn't believe that I'd touch an eel twice in one day. As I made my way back to Berk I tucked the eel under my vest.

_If the eel scared Toothless…what about a different Dragon?_ I figured why not? Even if the eel didn't scare the Dragons in the Kill Ring, I could still use it to distract them. I got back to town just as everyone was starting to come out of their houses. I ran past and a few people noticed that fact I was dripping wet and muttered, "Did it rain earlier?"

When I got back to my house, Gobber met me there.

"Ah, there ye are lad!" he said, 'Come on snap to, time for Dragon Training."

"Hey at least let me dry off first!" I pleaded.

"Ah, if yeh all wet, ye won't catch fire." Gobber said, "Come on. We're working with the ZippleBack today."

So, I followed still sopping wet. Gobber then turned to me looking confused.

"How _did_ ye get soaked?" He asked, "It's not even drizzelin'…"

"Uhhh…" I was saved from inventing some explanation-thank the gods-when we reached the Kill Ring where Astrid, Snotlout, Fishlegs, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut were already waiting.

"About time…" Tuffnut said irritably.

"How did you get so wet?" Fishlegs asked, "It wasn't raining."

"Should we have soaked ourselves too?" Snotlout said slightly mockingly.

Gobber came with several water filled buckets and paired us up. Astrid and Ruffnut; Tuffnut and Snotlout; Fishlegs and me. Gobber then opened up the ZippleBack's cage and acid green gas came pouring out filling the ring with a strong smell of rotten eggs. I could barely see a thing. We all stood back to back with our partner watching each other's back in case the ZippleBack tried to sneak up on us.

"Today, is all about _teamwork_!" Gobber said somewhere behind us, "ZippleBacks are _especially_ tricky. A wet Dragon head can't breathe fire. One head breaths gas, the other ignites it. _Your_ job is to know which head is which."

I supposed I wasn't supposed to have much to worry about since I was already soaked. So instead of being roasted, I would be steamed, neither sounded good.

"…Razor sharp serrated teeth…Injects venom for pre-digestion…for ambush attack…crushes its victims wi-."

"_WILL YOU PLEASE STOP THAT!"_ I snapped. Even though it _is_ useful to have someone who knows about Dragons as your partner in Dragon Training, Fishlegs could get SO annoying when he's rambling on and on about Dragons in his weird lingo.

"If that dragon shows one of its faces…" I heard Snotlout say, "I'll…THERE!"

_SPLASH!_

_SPLASH!_

"HEY!" Astrid shouted indignantly.

"It's us!" Ruffnut shouted.

"Your butts are getting bigger." Tuffnut said scathingly, "We thought you were Dragons."

"N-Not…Nit that there's anything wrong with a Dragon-esque figure!" Snotlout stammered trying to get out of the hole Tuffnut had just dug them into. He just dug them in deeper.

_CLONK!_

"OW!" Tuffnut shouted. I could vaguely see him through the gas. He had landed right on his butt. Before he could get up something grabbed him from behind and yanked him back into the gas cloud.

A horrible yelp filled the air. Something whipped through the air nearby.

"UWAAH!"

"WHOA!"

_THUD! THUD!_

Tuffnut burst out of the gas looking battered and screaming at the top of lungs.

"OH I AM HURT! I AM VERY MUCH HURT!"

Fishlegs and I looked at each other.

"Our chances of survival are dwindling into single digits…" He said. Like I needed reminding, I was sure we already hit zero.

Out of the gas, a rounded green horned head emerged on a long serpent like neck. Eyes locked onto Fishlegs the ZippleBack moved its head closer. Fishlegs yelped and staggered back and fumbling with his bucket soaked the head…

…Which breathed out some gas.

"Ooops…" Fishlegs said, "Wrong head…"

I glanced around glad for once of my tendency to notice everything at once. I scanned the gas quickly looking for the other head, which soon emerged from the gas a bright spark flickering on and off in the back of its mouth.

"NOW HICCUP!" Gobber shouted.

I ran forwards and threw the water up-and missed by mere inches!

"AW _COME ON_!" I groaned as I watched the water splash back down to the ground. The ZippleBack lurched forwards at me and startled I staggered back and lost my footing. I fell back as both heads advanced on me.

"Hiccup!" Gobber shouted thinking that things were about to get out of hand.

Then I remembered I still had the eel under my vest. I had completely forgotten about it when today's training session started.

I stood up and the ZippleBack got one whiff of me and lurched back terrified! I raised my hands and advanced on it driving it back into its cage.

"Hey! Back! Get back!" I shouted, "Don't make me tell you again!" The ZippleBack tried to snap at me but as soon as it smelled the eel it jerked back and shrieked in fright. I kept advancing on the ZippleBack until I had it cornered in its cage. Smirking slightly, I pulled out the eel from under my vest and threw it in with the ZippleBack.

"Get in there. Think about what you've done." I said. The ZippleBack cowered in the corner of its cage and tried to stay as far away from the smoked eel as possible and covered itself with its wings. I closed the doors to the cage and locked them securely. I turned around to find everyone staring at me completely dumbstruck. Fishlegs was so surprised he dropped his bucket.

Slightly self consciously, I wiped my hands on my tunic, "So…uh…Are…are we done today?" I said awkwardly starting to sidle away, "I've got something…uh…y-yeah…I'll see you tomorrow!" and sprinted out of the Kill Ring with the others still staring at me retreating back still completely dumbstruck.

I stopped running when I reached my house and once I was inside I fell over laughing. I almost couldn't believe what I had just seen myself. I wish I had known Dragons didn't like eels; then during all those Dragon Raids to avoid getting snatched up all someone would have to do is run around waving an eel over their head!

Once I picked myself off the floor after laughing so hard I got dried off and grabbed a small bag putting in it, my notebook, an apple, a string with several knots which I used for measurements, and a snapper I picked up from the pickling barrel. It was time to visit Toothless again.

Toothless was gliding around when I arrived. He couldn't clear the canyon walls, but the prosthetic tail fin had opened up enough so he could glide around a little without crashing headfirst to the ground.

"Practicing flying eh Toothless?" I said once I was in the canyon. Toothless glided over to me excitedly and landed a little roughly. Soon as he was close enough I started scratching Toothless behind the ears. He made a loud rumbling purring sound and arched his back.

"You like being scratched there Toothless?" I said then started scratching again, this time with both hands. Toothless made the purring sound again, this time louder as I really started scratching the top of his head and leaned towards me slightly. He was really beginning to remind me of the wolfhound puppy I used to have when I was ten-at least until he was snatched up by a Groncle. Man I had fond memories of that wolfhound…

Something wet and warm touched my wrist, it tickled! I laughed out loud as I noticed Toothless licking at my arm. His tongue felt almost exactly like a dog's but also slightly like a cat's too. Toothless then leaned away and my feet left the ground! A few minutes later Toothless set me back on my feet and I stopped scratching.

"Here," I said pulling the snapper out of my bag, "I brought you some lunch." I held the fish out to Toothless and he grabbed it in his teeth, this time I was careful to keep my fingers out of the way. Though this time he didn't grab it the way he did yesterday. While he was eating I sat down next to him pulling out the apple for myself to eat.

As I ate, I found myself telling Toothless about myself. I had no idea why, but it felt good to finally be able to talk to someone who'd actually listen to me and not shoot me down.

"…Even though my dad-Stoick The Vast is the chief of the Hairy Hooligans Tribe and that means I'll be chief someday it only makes the fact that I'm the village loser worse…" I said taking another bite of my apple, "I don't know why but everyone just decided to hate my guts because of _this_."

Everyone except Toothless. He listened to me attentively watching me with his large green eyes. He was the first to ever accept me for who I was. I didn't know about Mom, I had too few memories of her to be sure…

Toothless purred reassuringly and rested his large black head in my lap. I smiled and petted him feeling the bumpy scales under my fingers.

"Thanks Toothless…" I said while petting him, "I'm so glad you listen…Nobody else does." I threw the apple core away.

"…and when he _does_…ugh…why does? What was wrong with the way I turned out?" I grumbled as I threw the core away then turned back to Toothless, "Well, let's move on from such depressing topics." I pulled out the measuring string from my bag.

"Hold still for me okay buddy?" then started measuring. I held up the measuring string to Toothless back, there was an unusually large gap between the ridges on his back, almost a perfect place to sit.

"Alright…twelve knots…back…" I muttered scrawling it down in my notebook, "…Thirty around the belly…" I kept making my measurements and jotting them down making sure that when I made the straps for the saddle, I made them extra long so it would fit if Toothless got bigger. He seemed like a young Dragon to me and I guessed that he probably still had some growth left. I put the string away and started planning out how the saddle would look. A horse saddle was out of the question, I had to take Toothless's wings into consideration, and since he was clearly built for fast flying, the saddle would have be so that I was lying down on his back. Sitting upright would likely result in me flying off and plunging to my death.

I made a few possible designs in my notebook while Toothless watched me curiously. He tilted his head trying to see what I was drawing and I closed my notebook grinning.

"It's a surprise Toothless." I said, "You'll see soon."

Toothless prodded me with his snout playfully as if saying "Come on! Show me!"

I leapt back laughing, "I don't want to spoil it!" I managed to say between laughs then sprinted away with Toothless giving chase. I was ahead for a few minutes until I was pushed forwards slightly when Toothless bumped me from behind. I turned my grin even bigger.

"Okay, now _I'm_ it!" I said then ran right at Toothless who turned and dashed away waggling his tail teasingly in front of me. We kept our game of tag up for several hours until I was completely out of breath and early evening was setting in. I was lying down on my back in the grass next to Toothless panting heavily, but we both had fun! For a while we just watched the clouds pass overhead. I put my hand on Toothless's shoulder still panting.

"O-okay…"I gasped, "I-I need to…head…head back home now." I stood up and so did Toothless. He looked at me expectantly.

"I'll see you tomorrow," I said, scratching Tooothless's head "Promise." I turned to leave and Toothless followed me over to the canyon entrance. I climbed up the stone ledges when suddenly my foot slipped and I nearly fell!

"AGH!" I frantically clawed at the stone ledge trying to grab on! Somehow I managed it and avoided falling. Panting a little I looked back to Toothless, "I'm alright. Didn't get hurt."

Toothless snorted and gave me a slightly irritated look. Somehow I knew he was thinking "Be careful!"

"Don't worry. I'll be more careful from now on Toothless." I said a little sheepishly knowing just how accident prone I was…I managed to get up the rest of the stone ledges without further incident and started on my way to Berk.

It was almost dark by the time I got back and since I was pretty hungry after all that running I did with Toothless I headed for the meade hall and received the shock of my life. Fishlegs, Snotlout, Tuffnut, and Ruffnut along with a few other of the townspeople nearly swarmed me as I entered.

"How did you do that?" Snotlout asked.

"How did you figure out that Dragons were afraid of eels?" Fishlegs asked.

"Did you plan that all out?" Tuffnut asked.

"Of course he did." Ruffnut snapped at Tuffnut, "Hiccup's always thinking of something!"

"Sorry about those times I called you a wimp…guess you were just a late bloomer."

"Wha…what?" I bleated completely taken by surprise. Had the whole world gone insane! Why was everyone suddenly being so…nice?

I glanced around at everyone, "Is this a practical joke?" I asked.

The next few days passed by quickly. The day after the ZippleBack training session, everyone except Astrid and I brought eels to training, the ZippleBack must have told the other Dragons about the eel incident because none of them would come near me. Tuffnut and Ruffnut especially seemed to be enjoying themselves waving their eels at the Dragons. Fishlegs had brought several and was trying to figure out which one would be most effective.

"HAH! Take that!" Snotlout shouted waving an eel at a Groncle who yelped and zoomed away and nearly rammed into me, but stopped in time and flew away chased by eel wielding Viking teenagers and I swear it actually tried to hide behind Astrid.

I was still pretty sure that there was some practical joke being played on me. When I wasn't at training, or working on the pattern for Toothless's saddle at the forge I spent most of my free time with Toothless visiting with a large basket of fish and also making sure my measurements for the saddle were accurate. Toothless tried to get a look at my notes but each and every time it just resulted in another game of tag.

I didn't mind one bit. The hours I spent with Toothless were the happiest of the day. Besides, I always liked running, and finally there was someone I could run with and not have someone yell "Coward" after me or yell at me to get back inside during a raid.

It took me those few days to get the saddle put together. I had to hammer in holes to stitch together the straps onto the saddle. Once I was done, I set it down on the floor to look it over. Slightly oval shaped, and long enough for me to partially sit and lie down on; and I tried to make the straps in a way that it would be more comfortable for Toothless. The next day after a rather crazy training session with the Nadder-which resulted in me and Astrid crashing into each other and ending up in a tangled heap on the floor-she slugged me for that-I took the saddle with me to Toothless's canyon.

"Surprise!" I said holding up the saddle.

Toothless took one look at it then bolted away sticking his tongue out at me. Clearly he wasn't exactly thrilled at the idea of me riding him. I bolted after him as fast as I could.

"Toothless wait!" I shouted holding the saddle over my head while running, "I just need to make sure it fits!" I tried everything. I even tried sneaking up but no luck. Finally Toothless tried flying away but ended up crashing headfirst into the canyon walls. Toothless crashed to the ground not moving.

"TOOTHLESS!" I shouted running over to him, "Toothless are you okay!" He was still breathing, that was a relief. He was just knocked out. Wait…maybe…I had to take the chance. While Toothless was knocked out I managed to get the saddle on him. Though rolling him over with my minimal strength was rather hard…I eventually got the saddle on securely. Soon as I did, he started to wake up.

"Toothless! Toothless!" I said shaking his shoulder as he started to wake up, "Toothless are you okay?"

Toothless opened his large green eyes, rolled over onto his belly and gave his head a shake. He then licked my sleeve. Good, he was alright.

"Oh good…" I said in relief, "You were out for a few minutes but it looks like you're okay." Toothless blinked at me then snorted slightly and noticed the saddle on his back. He gave me an exasperated look and took off.

"HEY!" I dashed after and putting on a burst of speed jumped and landed on his back and all the air came out of me, "UMMF!" I grunted and tried to find a handhold on the saddle while Toothless bucked around under me. I lost my grip and went flying off forwards and landed hard on my back several feet away. I just picked myself up again and tried to get back on Toothless.

Basically, we ended up in another game of tag. Only this time, Toothless was not about to let me tag him. I kept chasing him around the canyon trying everything I could think of to get back on the saddle. After a while I was still running after Toothless when I suddenly tripped and fell!

"AGH!" I landed hard on my chest. I tried to get back to my feet but as soon as I got some weight on my feet pain shot up from my left ankle and I lost my balance and fell. Toothless came over looking a little worried while I rubbed my ankle-it hurt.

"Twisted my ankle…" I must have stepped awkwardly while chasing Toothless. I tried to stand again, but wound up falling again. I couldn't even stand up!

"Great." I said, "I'm stuck here." I pulled off my left boot and then started massaging my ankle trying to "untwist" it. It was pretty painful. Toothless went behind me and laid down, looking over my shoulder I saw him shift slight towards me. I figured he wanted me to lean back against his side.

"Thanks…" I said leaning back against Toothless's side. I managed to find a comfortable spot just in front of the wing joint and settled back while I tried to "untwist" my ankle. Toothless curled around me to watch. It took several (painful) minutes but eventually…

_POP!_

"OUCH!" I somehow managed to fix my ankle but I still reminded myself to visit the healer later to make sure I didn't actually sprain my ankle. I rubbed my ankle down taking a few deep breaths as the stinging dulled away. All I had to do was wait.

"I think that did it…" I said lifting my hands from my ankle, "Now I rest." I leaned back against Toothless and pulled out my notebook and pencil. I kicked off my other boot and pulling my knees in I propped up my notebook against my knees opened it and started to write.

**How To Train Your Dragon**

**By,**

**Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III**

I started writing and making sketches for I don't know how long. I wasn't even sure why I had suddenly started writing a training manual. I just had a feeling I'd better write down what I knew already, just in case. I wrote down a note that said never to let eel near your Dragon then made a few more sketches of Toothless. It started to cool off as evening set in and started to get a little dark. I yawned and leaned back to watch the stars that were starting to appear in the sky. A low thumping sound sounded from just behind my head and I started to feel drowsy. Yawning again I closed my eyes as the sound of Toothless's heartbeat slowly lulled me to sleep.

_I was flying. But not by myself. I was riding Toothless. We soared over the ocean past several rock formations as gulls squawked and flew overhead. The feeling was incredible! We flew right through a complex rock formation covered in fog and shot out-nothing could restrain us, the whole world was open to us! I cheered sharing the feeling of sheer joy! Was this how Toothless felt when he was able to fly?_

When I woke up and opened my eyes, I wondered if I had. Black surrounded me. I reached up and felt a soft warm membrane and thin bones. Toothless's wings!

"Wha? Whoa!" Then I remembered last night-I must have fallen asleep! Toothless lifted his wing and the sunlight nearly blinded me. I sat up blinking. I rubbed my eyes to clear my vision.

"How long was I asleep?" I muttered as Toothless also started to wake up then I noticed it was morning, "OMIGODS!" I shouted horrified. I quickly jammed my boots back on.

"I'm going to be late for training!" I sprang up and completely forgetting that I twisted my ankle yesterday tried to run over to the canyon entrance. I stumbled halfway there and tripped and fell. I braced myself for the fall but instead of hitting the ground, I fell across Toothless's back. I looked up and Toothless bucked slightly and gave me a toothy grin.

_I see…_I nodded and pulled myself up into the saddle. Once I was on, Toothless walked over to the canyon entrance. Once there I slid off, surprised, Toothless had let me ride him. He must have figured out that I was just trying to help him fly again. I looked back at Toothless, a grin on my face and an idea forming in my head.

"We need to get you flying again Toothless." I said, "I'll come back with a little something tomorrow." Toothless gave me a huge "toothless" smile.

I somehow managed to limp back to Berk. When I got into town, no one was outside. Great, I must be really late for training now! I limped through town and past the forge to get to the Kill Ring.

"Hiccup!" Gobber said from the forge.

I jolted, why was Gobber in the forge?

"S-sorry…I-I overslept!" I bleated, "I'm on my way to the Kill Ring for Training right now!"

Gobber stepped out looking sleepy, "Hiccup…what in the blazes are ye doin' up so early? It's Loki's Day! We don't have training today."

"WHAT?"

I could've stayed with Toothless!

* * *

***laughs* I think we've all had moments like that! waking up thinking we're late for school then we're told it's saturday!**

**Btw Loki's Day is the old name for Saturday, as a bit of trivia, each day of the week is named for one of the Norse gods. Ex. Fiday is named for Freya and Thursday is named for Thor.**

**Well, sounds like our hero's got something up his sleeve to get Toothless flying agian good luck Hiccup!**

**see you in Chapter Seven!**

**This chapter was edited May 30, 2010: I had to do some editing after due a review and going over it myself, there way too many exclamation points. **

**Chocobo Scribe**


	7. I Have Several Crash Landings

**Sorry for the long wait! This chapter took me almost a week to write and it's a long one alright. I think I went over twenty oages on Word...But here's chapter seven and enjoy!**

**Standard disclaimers apply R&R or Toothless will Grrr!**

* * *

**Chapter Seven: I Have Several Crash Landings**

_And I,_

_Wanna tell you who I am,_

_Can you help me be a man?_

_They can't break me,_

_As long as I know who I am…_

The rest of the day after visiting the town healer about my ankle I had to take it easy. No problem, I just spent the day working on some means of staying on Toothless's saddle. The last thing I wanted was to get thrown off and break every bone in my body. Using some of the leather scraps from making the saddle I made a harness belt. Using a short cord and small hook I'd secure myself to the saddle by hooking it to the edge of the saddle. Once I was done, all that was left was to try it out. Now, I had to figure out how to keep Toothless airborne. I figured that if I could at least keep the prosthetic tailfin from collapsing on itself Toothless and I would easily avoid a nasty crash landing. For this, I decided to use a long cord of leather and a hook.

The next day after training, I headed back to Toothless's canyon with the belt and cord in hand. Toothless was waiting for me eagerly.

"Alright, this will keep me secured to the saddle so I won't fly off and break my neck." I said showing Toothless the cord attached to my belt, "And this, I'll use this cord to keep your flight stable."

The first thing I wanted to do was make sure I could stay in the saddle before flying.

Good thing too.

I swung myself up into the saddle and hooked the cord onto the edge of the saddle, "Alright, let's see if this works." I muttered, "Um…run around a bit." I said patting Toothless's side. Toothless ran around and bucked while I held on. There wasn't a problem until I tried holding on using only my legs.

"WHOOOOAAAAAAA!" I went flying forwards right over Toothless's head and headfirst into the pond! I swam back to the surface sputtering and paddled back to the edge and pulled myself out of the water sopping wet.

"Okay." I said taking my vest off and trying to wring the water out, "_That_ didn't work." I was going to have to rethink the belt harness idea. Toothless started flapping his wings causing a light breeze. He must have been trying to dry me off.

"Thanks buddy." I said while Toothless dried me off, then I sneezed, "Ugh! Something went up my nose!" I sneezed again. Some dust must have blown into my face. Toothless stopped flapping his wings and stepped closer and I sneezed again right into his face.

"Sorry Toothless…" I said as he snorted and jerked back pawing at his face, "I'm gonna have to think of something else to stay on the saddle." I wiped at my nose and sniffed. I put my vest down on a rock to dry and pulled out the long cord.

"While I dry off, let's try this out." I said holding up the cord, "I'm going to attach this to your tail okay?" Toothless jerked his head to his tail telling me to "go ahead". I crouched next to the prosthetic tailfin and spread it out trying to find a spot to hook the cord onto.

"Here? No…here. No…" I muttered trying to find a secure place for the cord. After a few minutes of trying and muttering to myself I managed to find a spot to hook the cord onto. I stepped back next to Toothless's head and started tugging at the cord. The prosthetic tailfin's angle adjusted slightly depending on how hard I pulled.

"Looks like it's working…" I said, "I'll just make a few tweaks to the saddle then we start practicing flying." I removed the cord from the prosthetic tailfin and took the saddle off Toothless's back to make the needed adjustments.

"I'll take the saddle home and I'll be back tomorrow." I picked up my still wet vest and left the canyon with the saddle in tow. I was careful to make sure I got back to my house unnoticed. I was sure I wouldn't be able to explain why I was soaked when it wasn't raining-again and the fact why I had come back from the forest with a saddle clearly not made for a horse. One wrong step and both Toothless and I would be in trouble! I didn't want anything to happen to him, not my first best friend.

That night I was at the forge working on Toothless's saddle. I forged a small metal ring which I attached to the saddle then made the hook on my belt slightly smaller for a more "snug" fit. I hooked my belt onto the ring and gave it a good shake. The hook on my belt didn't come off.

_So far so good._ I thought as I packed up to head back to my house, _All I have to do is test it out._

At training the next day we were working with the ZippleBack again. This time I had no eel to scare it off with but I found out that if I made it _look_ like I was about to pull one out from my vest the thing would back off. I was crowded after by the townspeople and the rest of the class except Astrid all praising my cleverness. Astrid on the other hand looked ready to strangle me!

"Heh, bet after that eel incident the ZippleBack will think twice before trying to eat you!"

"Why didn't I think of that?"

"What kind of cool plan are you gonna use next?"

"Ahh…I…I really have to get going…" I stammered I never liked crowds or confined spaces, "I'll…I'll…I'll see you guys tomorrow!" and somehow managed to escape.

Someone better not be playing some prank on me!

I arrived back at Toothless's canyon later with the saddle, cord, and the harness belt. I couldn't wait to start flying! After getting the saddle back on Toothless-and this time he was a bit more cooperative-I tested the harness belt again. I didn't even so much as roll off the saddle, even when only holding ob with my legs.

Now, we could start flying! I didn't know which I was more excited about, helping Toothless fly again or being able to fly myself. I attached the cord to Toothless's prosthetic tailfin and got back into the saddle and secured myself in. I held onto the saddle with one hand and the cord with the other.

"Alright Toothless!" I shouted, "Let's go!" Toothless thrust his wings downward and we were off! Every few seconds I twisted around in the saddle to make sure the prosthetic tailfin was still open and to adjust it. We were able to fly over the pond.

But that was as far as we got…

After two minutes the cord slipped right out of my hand and both Toothless and I fell into the pond with a huge _SPLASH!_

Tugging at the prosthetic tailfin by hand: failed. Maybe if I tried again using my foot...That way I'd be able to hold onto the saddle with both hands reducing the chance of falling off. Leaving my vest on a rock to dry I tied the cord to my ankle and getting back into the saddle we tried again.

We were able to clear the canyon walls, but I still had to keep looking back every time I tugged at the prosthetic tailfin with my foot. I tugged a little too hard and the cord broke off and we were going down! We crashed into a large patch of tall grass, the harness belt broke and I was thrown off! Luckily we had already hit the ground and I was able to run to a stop to avoid injury. I turned to make sure Toothless was alright and froze.

Toothless was rolling around in the grass on his back exactly like a cat! The look on his face was even similar. He never rolled around in the grass back in our canyon so why was he rolling around in _this_ grass?

"Uh…Toothless?" No response. Toothless rolled onto his belly and squirmed around on the grass sniffing in its scent.

"Toohless…are you alright?" Toothless rolled onto his back again with a big smile on his face and a rather goofy look in his eyes. He kept rolling around, it had to be because of the grass...I walked over nearby Toothless and pulled out a small tuft out and sniffed it.

It smelled almost exactly like catnip only a little earthier.

"It smells like catnip…" So, Dragons had their own catnip. I couldn't help but wonder how other Dragons might react to this catnip stuff. After watching Toothless roll around in the grass I started getting really impatient. It was a little funny at first but now…

"Okay Toothless we have to go." I said. No response, I wasn't sure if Toothless had even heard me. Finally, I tried rolling him out of the grass before it did anything weirder to him. Toothless snorted and stubbornly stayed put. I kept trying but no luck.

And Dad said _I'm_ stubborn.

_Why not?_ I pulled out the tuft of grass and started scratching at Toothless's nose with it. Toothless immediately perked up and when I stepped back he followed me and right out of the grass. Son as we were out of the grass Toothless sneezed and shook his head looking a little dizzy. That catnip grass…or…Dragon-nip must have been really potent!

"What was that stuff?" I said while Toothless tried to clear his head, "You were acting like a cat when it gets too close to catnip!" I looked at the tuft of grass again.

"This might come in handy…" I tucked it into my vest making a mental note to bring it to Dragon Training tomorrow. I looked at the remains of the harness belt, another thing I was going to have to rethink…

"Looks like I'm gonna need to think of something else…"I said, 'Just tugging at the prosthetic tailfin this way didn't work…" It also had made flight rather dangerous for me as well. I had to keep looking behind me when I tugged at the prosthetic tailfin and not ahead where I should be looking. If I tried flying Toothless like that I'd just get both of us killed. And I wasn't planning on going to either Helhiem or Valhalla for quite a long time.

But using my foot had been slightly more successful than using my hand. If I could just build off from there, we might just get airborne! After a bumpy landing in our canyon I took the saddle home with me again to make some more additions. I added some stirrups to the saddle making sure the left one had more mobility than the right one. My plan was that the left stirrup would control the angle of the prosthetic tailfin that way it would eventually get into my muscle memory and I wouldn't have to look behind me so much. I also gathered up some extra bits of leather and metal, I would make the last few tweaks tomorrow at Toothless's canyon.

Before turning in for the night I made a note of the Dragon-nip Toothless and I crashed into earlier that day…

**Dragon-nip: A tall grass similar to catnip. Useful if your Dragon won't go in the same direction you want to. Just scratch it into their nose and they'll follow you.**

The next day at Dragon Training we were working with the Groncle again. The story of me having eels hidden under my vest must have died out because the Groncle made no hesitation to ram me! Good thing speed has always been my strength…

"WHOA!" Snotlout was knocked clean off his feet as the Groncle rammed into him. I quickly pulled out the Dragon-nip _praying_ that I knew what I was about to do. The Groncle saw me and zoomed right at me. I squeezed me eyes shut and looked away holding the Dragon-nip out.

_THUD!_

I opened my eyes and looked, the Groncle was lying on its belly with a goofy look on it face as it got a good whiff of the Dragon-nip. I stepped forward and started scratching it into its nose.

_That's it big guy…_ I though as the Groncle rolled over onto its side, _Breathe it in._

Training ended that day with Astrid looking ready to lock me in with the Nightmare and everyone else crowding around me as we left the Kill Ring.

"What was that stuff?" Tuffnut asked.

"How did you do that?" Fishlegs asked.

"I never saw a Groncle do that!" Snotlout said still laughing. He had fallen over laughing at the sight of the Groncle rolling over after it sniffed the Dragon-nip. I backed away when they started to crowd me.

"I…I uh….I left my axe back in the ring…You guys go on ahead" I said backing up and nearly bumping into Astrid, "I'll catch up with you!" and sprinted back into the Kill Ring where I had intentionally left my axe. I picked it up and by the time I was out, the rest of the class had already gone back to Berk. I took the chance and got a basketful of fish, Toothless's saddle and the tools and supplies from my house and making sure I wasn't followed raced back to our canyon.

While Toothless ate the fish I assembled the last few parts of the saddle to his tail and the prosthetic tailfin. Basically, a cord would run from the prosthetic tail fin to the left stirrup. Depending on how I pressed on it with my foot would alter the angle of the prosthetic tailfin and then Toothless would be able to fly the way he normally did before I knocked him out of the sky.

I still have guilty feelings about that…

I was almost done hammering a screw into place when Toothless suddenly leapt forwards!

"Whoa! Toothless!" I fell back and the hammer tumbled out of my hand. Toothless dived at the ground and at first I thought he saw a small rodent or something. Then Toothless stopped sniffing the ground. I picked up my hammer and a small spot of light was reflected off the metal and appeared on the ground near Toothless's paw. Toothless leapt at the spot of light trying to catch it with his paws.

I couldn't resist. I crouched down and wiggled the hammer around causing the spot of light to move around on the ground. Toothless kept pouncing on the spot of light, trying to catch it in his paws. Seriously…I'm beginning to think that Toothless is really an overgrown puppy with wings.

I snorted slightly trying not to laugh. It was just too funny watching Toothless chase a spot of light around. Toothless heard me. The next thing I knew I was pinned down to the ground with Toothless licking my face! I tried to slide out, but Toothless had me pinned and kept licking. I almost out of breath from laughing so much!

"T-Toothless! St-stop! That tickles!" I gasped trying to push Toothless off me. He just wormed his head around my arms and kept licking at me. Toothless liked being scratched, I wonder…

I started scratching Toothless under his chin and he stopped licking my face and started making that loud purring sound again. I moved my hand around still scratching at the same time starting to slide out from under Toothless. My hand scratched at a point near his neck and…_Flump!_ Toothless collapsed right in top of me fast asleep. I pushed but I was still stuck nearly getting crushed under his weight.

And it didn't smell that great either…

Several hours later I somehow managed to get one of my arms free and started trying to free myself again. Toothless snorted and woke up and stood.

"Ooohhh…." I groaned sitting up and clutching at my ribs, thankfully, none of my bones were broken. Still being trapped under Toothless was _really_ uncomfortable. I turned to Toothless who was watching me with a slight worried expression.

"Remind me never to do that when you're on top of me okay?" I said starting to get up. Toothless nodded whimpering slightly. My whole body tingled. You know that feeling you get in your foot when you've sat cross-legged too long? Try imagining that happening to your whole body.

"Ugh…my whole body fell asleep…" I tried to get some feeling back into my limbs but each and every step hurt. Eventually, I laid down in the grass deciding to wait for the tingling to wear off. We weren't going to be able to practice flying today. Toothless lay down next to me spreading one of his wings over me giving me some shade.

"I'll be fine." I said turning my head to look at Toothless, "In a few minutes, I'll be back on my feet. Tomorrow we can try flying again." About an hour later after dozing, I was able to sit up and move without much difficultly. Stretching I stood up getting the blood flowing again. I scratched Toothless behind the ears.

"See you tomorrow!" I said in parting and returned to Berk.

The next day, I couldn't move a muscle. Gobber came by in an attempt to haul me out but I just fell to the floor in a heap. I didn't know why but I was so sore I couldn't move! I had to sit out of Dragon Training that day. Snotlout came by trying to "help" but I think he just made it slightly worse by almost breaking my arm!

By evening I was able to move again, but it was also too late to go visit Toothless. Instead using the remaining leather scarps from making the saddle I worked on a flight harness. This one would be more like vest and less likely to break. In the back the flight vest was secured by several strips of leather-kind of like a jerkin-and made shoulder pads from leather and steel to provide some padding in case I fell off. Finally, the vest was secured in the front with a round steel plate and two leather straps formed an "x' across my chest. I tried it on and it fit perfectly. After some small scale tests I turned in for the night.

I hoped that Toothless wasn't too worried that I hadn't shown up…

The next day at Dragon Training we were working with the Nadder again. It was just as fast as before but at least we weren't using a maze again. We were all just running around trying not to get incinerated.

"HAAAA!" Astrid threw her axe at the Nadder who knocked it aside with a loud snarl and charged right at me! I dropped the mace I was using and stepped sideways into its blind spot. The Nadder stopped and sniffed around for me.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGH!" Astrid came charging at the Nadder axe held high over her head! The Nadder snapped to face her growling. I quickly started scratching the side of its jaw and moved my hand down to below its chin.

The Nadder collapsed at my feet out cold.

Astrid came to a halt gaping at me completely surprised.

"How did you…?" She started to say then became very angry at me, "WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA!"

I took an involuntary step back.

"Uh." Gobber said, "Well…with the Nadder out…we can move onto the Terrible Terror!"

We hauled the snoozing adder back into its cage and once the door was locked, we all gathered in front of the Terrible Terror's cage. The beam was lifted, a small flap in the door swung outwards, and there was a scurry of movement.

"Meet the Terrible Terror!" Gobber shouted from outside the Kill Ring.

We all looked down. The Terrible Terror was about the size of a cat, lizard like body, green scales-they come in other colors too-red wings and ridges, and looked up at us curiously with large yellow eyes. The Terrible Terror is the smallest of the Dragons-but don't let that fool you. They can be pretty vicious.

"Ha!" Tiffnut scoffed underestimating the Terror, "It's like the size of my-AGH!"

_WHAM!_

Whatever the Terror was the size of we never found out. In a blur or green the Terror knocked Tuffnut flat on his back causing the rest of us to scatter and started gnawing on his nose!

"AAUUGH! GET IT OFF!" Tuffnut wailed as the little Dragon chewed at his nose. I adjusted my hold on my shield causing a spot of light to appear on Tuffnut's face.

"OH I AM HURT!" Tuffnut shouted, "I AM VERY MUCH HURT!" The Terror immediately let go of his nose and as I moved the spot of light around by shifting my shield the Terror scurried around following it and right back into its cage.

"Wow." Tuffnut said, "He's better than you ever were!"

"That made the Terror look almost cute." Ruffnut said.

I held the door flap down with my foot and turned to face the rest of the class. Tuffnut, Ruffnut, Snotlout, and Fishlegs were all looking at me impressed. Astrid looked almost murderous.

Once training was done and after escaping another crowd-lately I've been getting swarmed by the townspeople whenever I walk through Berk-I got back to my house and swapped my fur vest for the flight vest, grabbed my pencil, a piece of parchment, and some rope and sprinted to Toothless's canyon. I sure hoped he wasn't too worried…

As I ran down the trail toToothless's canyon I thought I heard Astrid. And sure enough…there she was training with her axe. She was really amazing, her aim was perfect. I stopped to watch and…she noticed me. An awkward pause followed and I dashed down the trail ducking behind some boulders until I was sure she had gone. I was going to have to be more careful from now on and maybe even take different routes to Toothless's canyon. Otherwise I'd be found out and likely kicked out of the tribe! But I was more afraid of what they'd do to Toothless…

I sprinted down the trail and once I was in the canyon I jumped the last few stone steps in my rush and Toothless bounded over to greet me. The look on his clearly showed how relieved he was to see me.

"Sorry I didn't come yesterday." I said petting Toothless's head slightly apologetically, "When I woke up yesterday, I could barely move." Toothless purred as I petted him.

"Hope you weren't too worried." Then I mentally slapped myself! Of course Toothless must have been worried! I would've if he suddenly went missing from our canyon! Toothless lifted what would've been an eyebrow the look on his face saying "Of course I was worried!"

"Okay…I guess you _were_ worried…" I muttered, "But, now I'm here!" And we could start practicing flying! Toothless sniffed curiously at the flight vest I was wearing.

"Ah, like it?" I said, "This will keep me more secured in the saddle. After that landing in the grass, the belt broke and I got thrown off." I was also going to use the rope, hopefully we'd find a rock or a tree stump I could tie onto and then Toothless and I could practice that way. Hopefully, that would reduce the chances of another nasty crash landing.

I swung myself up into the saddle and secured myself in. I pressed down on the left stirrup…_click_ I twisted around as I shifted my left foot watching the prosthetic tailfin opened up and flapped slightly.

"Alright…it's working…Should be able to fly out of the canyon…" I patted Toothless's side, "Alright Toothless, take us out of here!" Toothless crouched down to the grass and took off! We were able to fly out of the canyon without much difficultly, we didn't even wobble. We glided over several acres of the Dragon-nip grass until we landed on a ledge overlooking the bay. On the ledge I saw a large craggy boulder, perfect for tying onto.

"Ah, perfect!" I jumped off and tied one end of the rope as securely as I could onto the boulder and after giving it a tug to make sure it was secure tied to other end to Toothless's saddle. I made sure that knot was secure then got back into the saddle and secured myself in. I pulled out my pencil and a sheet of parchment which I secured to the front of the saddle.

"Alright Toothless," I said patting him on the side, "Let's get started!"

Toothless jumped up and a gust of wind caught us, there was a jerk forwards but we stayed airborne. I shifted my foot in the left stirrup _click_ and we banked left slightly. I twisted around in the saddle to look and shifted my foot again causing Toothless to land. I made a note of the prosthetic tailfin's position on the parchment and we started again.

We repeated the process until…_SNAP!_ The rope snapped right in the middle and we went flying backwards! The impact of the crash caused me to fall off! But instead of being thrown several feet like previous crash landings, I just rolled off.

"Ow…" then I jerked up and I was dangling upside down from Toothless's saddle!

"AH!" Toothless set me back down and I was able to get right side up. I tugged at the cord securing me to the saddle. It had just become a little _too_ secure. The ring and hook were jammed together.

"Oh great…It's jammed…" I groaned, "And I left all my tools back in Berk…"

We had no other choice…

By nightfall we were in Berk. I had to take Toothless through all the back ways to avoid being seen. Toothless was clearly enjoying himself. He kept looking around and sniffing the air. This was probably his first time in a Human village and he was checking out all the different smells. More than once Toothless and I had to duck into an alley when one of the townspeople passed.

I led Toothless towards to forge then I saw someone come by I quickly motioned to Toothless to stop then leaned casually against the house.

"Ah, evening Hiccup."

"Hey." I tried to sound casual but I was completely freaking out.

The Viking passed by heading to the Meade Hall. I started for the forge and felt a jerk as Toothless started to follow the Viking to the Meade Hall. He must have smelled the meat cooking there…

"No…this way." I whispered tugging at the cord getting Toothless to follow me into the forge. We got inside and I tried to find some pliers through the gloom. My vision slowly adjusted to the darkness and as I spotted the pliers…Toothless knocked over several tools and weapons making a loud clattering sound! I grabbed the pliers and started trying to un-jam the ring and hook. I wasn't having much luck…

"It's…jammed…really good…" I grunted putting my whole weight into trying to un-jam the ring and hook.

"Hiccup?" Astrid's voice said from outside.

I nearly jumped out of my skin.

"A-Astrid!" I bleated. I grabbed a blacksmith's apron, threw it on and jumped out the drop off window closing the shuttered behind me before Astrid could see Toothless.

"Hi Astrid. Hi Astrid. Hi Astrid." I rambled, "So…uh…How have you been doing?"

I was so dead…

"What is with you!" Astrid shouted, "You've been acting _really_ weird!"

There was a jerk behind me and I was pulled against the forge window shutters. This was not good…

"Weirder…" Astrid amended, "And…where have you been? You disappear all afternoon and-WHOA!"

I pulled up and yanked back through the forge drop off window and landed back on Toothless's back! Good save Toothless!

"Yeah, I think it's time to go too…" I said tossing off the apron and righting myself in the saddle. Toothless dashed out of the forge and through the village. Once we were clear I pressed down on the left stirrup and Toothless spread his wings and took off!

I have no idea how I did it but we managed to fly all the way back to our canyon. We only wobbled a few times but at least we landed safely. Once we were on solid ground I got back to un-jamming the ring and hook, this time, I was successful. Finally I was able to get the hook from my flight vest off the ring on Toothless's saddle.

"Finally…" I gasped sitting down in the grass completely worn out of a sudden, "I thought it would never come off!" Toothless grinned at me toothily. Somehow I knew he was saying: "Hey, at least we flew!"

I grinned back and scratched Toothless behind the ears, "We'll practice flying every chance we get. I never felt anything like that before…it was…" I looked for the right word, "…Incredible…" I couldn't wait to be able to fly with Toothless for real. It would take some time before I could manage the prosthetic tailfin without looking at my notes. I'd better get all the practice I could get!

I leaned back against Toothless's side and we watched the stars for a while. I almost fell asleep but I had to get back to Berk. And how on earth was I going to explain being yanked through the forge drop off window to Astrid? She would definitely ask the next time she saw me at Dragon Training…

"…Maybe I should say it was one of my inventions acting up…" I muttered climbing up the stone ledges. I made my way back through the forest back to Berk. I was too tired to cook something at home so I went into the Meade Hall for dinner. My usually empty dinner table was suddenly very full and Snotlout was sitting next to me! Something that had never happened before…

"That was amazing how you handled the Nadder Hiccup! Took 'im down with your bare hands!"

"That'll be something to tell your kids when you have some."

"I'm starting to think that the Terrible Terrors are really cats in disguise!"

Astrid slammed her mug down outraged.

Even though my sudden success in Dragon training was due to observing Toothless then just wondering if it would work with another Dragon, it was nice that people stopped giving me a hard time. Still…sometimes I wondered if I was too impulsive for my own good…After eating I went back to my house and pulled out my cheatsheet for Toothless's prosthetic tailfin. I had to commit to memory if I was going to fly successfully and not crash splat into the ground.

With Dragon Training and practicing flying with Toothless the next few weeks passed by quickly. In the mornings I had Dragon Training and used anything new that I had learned from Toothless against whatever Dragon we were pitted against. Who would've guessed that Dragons had severe dandelion allergies? Wtach out for Dragon snot when they sneeze though, the snot is extremely corrosive. In the afternoons and evenings I would visit Toothless with a large basketful of fish and then we'd practice flying. I was careful to make sure I wasn't followed and even took different routes or double-backed just to be safe. We still had some crash landings-most of them in the Dragon-nip-but at least neither of us were injured…The movement of the stirrup and prosthetic tailfin slowly got into my muscle memory. I still had to occasionally check my cheatsheet, but sometimes I was able to just do it.

Before I knew it a whole month had gone by.

Astrid and I were tied at first in Dragon Training as the sessions slowly winded down to deciding who would kill the Monstrous Nightmare. Flying was becoming easier each day. I found out how to steer pretty quickly, all I had to do was lean to the side if I wanted to go left or right; forward or backward if I wanted to go up or down. If it weren't for the fact that the people of Berk lived to fight Dragons, I would've wowed everyone with a flight show. Being the first Viking to ride a Dragon? Sounds pretty heroic to me.

After training, that session with the ZippleBack again where at everyone's insistence I once again scared it off with an eel and making sure that we had the day off tomorrow, I packed some things from home and headed to Toothless's canyon. Tomorrow would be our first real flight. I wanted to spend the whole day flying.

Toothless and I had another practice flight around the forest-we didn't so much as wobble in mid air. We were ready.

"Looks like we're ready for our first _real_ flight." I said hopping off the saddle, "I don't have anything going on in Berk tomorrow so I'm going to spend the night here. We'll spend the whole day flying tomorrow!"

The next day we both woke up early. Clear skies, a westerly wind, and it was warm for once. Perfect flight conditions. After a rushed breakfast, I actually wolfed down my bread and apple just as fast as Toothless ate his fish, we were ready to start flying! I jumped onto the saddle secured myself in and tucked the cheatsheet on the front of the saddle just in case.

"Alright," I said patting Toothless's side, "Today's the day. Are you ready Toothless?" Toothless nodded and bucked slightly under me. He was just as excited as I was! I pushed down on the left stirrup…_click_ and twisted around to make sure the prosthetic tailfin was opened enough. Toothless spread his wings out and thrust them down and we were off!

We flew over the forest and soon we were over the ocean. Plenty of room to fly. We glided high above the ocean's surface a sea breeze blowing past us as we flew.

"Okay there bud?" I asked Toothless patting his side, "We're gonna take this nice and slow." I looked down at my cheatsheet which was attached to the front of the saddle running ym finger over the positions trying to remember which one to use to bank left.

"Position…three…no…four!" I tilted my foot back slightly in the left stirrup _click_ I turned around in the saddle to see the prosthetic tailfin open up some more. I turned back to look ahead as we banked left I twisted around again to make sure the prosthetic tailfin was working properly.

So far so good.

We straightened out without any problems. I turned in the saddle again the prosthetic tailfin was doing its job perfectly. Time to really start flying.

"Okay." I said, "It's go time. It's go time…" I turned back around and leaning forward took Toothless into a dive! The air rushed past me as we dived down to the ocean's surface almost nose down! I pulled Toothless out of the dive and soaring over the ocean; surface we flew straight for a large craggy rock formation towering over us.

"Come on buddy! Come on buddy!" I shouted cheering Toothless on. We tilted to the left slightly causing Toothless's left wing to skim over the water. We shot through the rock formation arching over us. While still hanging on to the saddle I looked up to see several seagulls flying overhead.

_Whoa…_I looked back ahead then turned back to look at the prosthetic tailfin.

"Yes! It worked!" But I should've been looking _ahead_ of me.

_CRASH!_

We crashed right into one of rocks!

"Sorry!" I tried to steer Toothless away and crashed into another rock!

_CRASH!_

"My fault…" I said as I finally managed to get Toothless back on course.

_THWAK!_ Toothless slapped me hard across the face with one of his ears snorting.

"OW!" I shouted, "Yeah, yeah I'm on it!" I snapped slightly irritably. It was an accident! I looked back down at my cheatsheet time to get higher up in the air…

"Position…four…no, three!" I seriously had to get these numbers right or I'd get us _both_ killed. I moved my foot into position three and Toothless started climbing higher and higher into the air towards the clouds! The feeling was incredible!

"YEAH!" I shouted elated, "GO BABY!"

We climbed higher into the air almost above the clouds and the view was spectacular, breath taking even.

"This is _amazing_!" I shouted, "The wind in my-." My cheatsheet flew right off the saddle!

"CHEATSHEET! STOOOOOP!" without thinking I leaned back and made a wild grab for my cheatsheet!

Big mistake.

I managed to grab my cheatsheet, but the hook keeping me secured to Toothless's saddle came off and I went flying up above Toothless. For a split second I hung there in midair-then we both plunged back down to earth!

Without me in the saddle Toothless was tumbling down helplessly! And I didn't have wings!

"OH GODS! OH GODS!" I yelped while tumbling through the air at top speed. I tried to angle myself to fall towards Toothless but when I tried to make a grab for the saddle…I was knocked back by one of his wings and was sent tumbling down! Toothless shrieked in a panic and tucked his wings to dive and catch up to me! But by the time he did, he was spinning out of control in every direction!

"Toothless!" I shouted, "You...You gotta angle yourself! Lean this way towards me and-OW!"

One of Toothless's wings had clipped me on the cheek while he was tumbling nearly sending me into the rocks behind me! Somehow, Toothless managed to get enough control over his fall to get under me. I held my cheatsheet in my teeth and reached down scrabbling at the saddle and finally managed to get a handhold and pulled myself on and secured myself in.

With a loud grunt I pulled back with all the strength I had to pull Toothless out of our dive! The wind caught under his wings just in time but we were still barreling towards several craggy rocks covered in fog! Holding on to the saddle with one hand I pulled my cheatsheet out from my teeth. It was flapping around so much I couldn't see my notes on it! We were getting closer and closer! Toothless shrieked in a panic! Total instinct took over. I let go of the cheatsheet leaned forwards on the saddle, flattening myself on Toothless's back and we plunged into the fog!

And I had the strangest feeling ever. It didn't just feel like I was just on Toothless's back using my foot to move the prosthetic tailfin. Toothless responded to my lightest touch to the point where it was like he reacted to my _thoughts_. Like I had suddenly become part of him or he had become part of me…or both. I could almost feel Toothless's wings beating as if they were my own. We soared, tumbled and rolled completely over navigating the rocks and we didn't hit a single one! We burst out of the fog and I could sense sheer joy coming from Toothless and run through me!

"YEEEEAAAAAHH!" I threw my arms up cheering! That was the most amazing thing ever! I may not have been much of a Viking, but _this_, I was born to do this!

Toothless made a funny laughing like noise and let loose a violet fireball that exploded in the ocean. I guess he was just letting off his excitement in his own way but…

"_Oh come on!" _I groaned as we flew right at the inferno in front of us. Luckily, it was mostly steam and we both came out alright. But small fires had popped up all over my clothes! I yelped and tried to swat them out squirming around in the saddle!

"OW! OW! OW! HOT!" I yelped. We wobbled alarmingly but I was able to Toothless level in time. We spent the rest of the day flying over the ocean and the nearby surrounding islands of Berk. At dusk, we landed in some ruins-probably old training grounds-to rest. I looked and smelled like a dirty cinder. I didn't have any serious burns but I was covered in soot and my hair was stuck in the windblown look. Not my first bad hair day, nothing a hot bath won't fix.

I got a campfire going while Toothless went to go get something to eat. I managed to get the flames up when Toothless came back with several fish. I picked up a stick and skewered the fish and leaning against Toothless's side held it over the fire to cook. Toothless started eating the rest of the fish; he must have been hungry after all that flying today.

_Hllk…Hlllk…Hlllk…_

I turned and Toothless coughed up a salmon head dropping it right next to me. Clearly it was intended for me. I tried not to gag. He probably was starting to see me as his own hatchling and thought it would be easier for me to eat something he already ate. Over the past month I had become slightly aware of the fact Toothless was becoming rather protective around me. One example was when I nearly stepped on a snake and Toothless had grabbed me by the back of my tunic and jerked me away and incinerated the snake.

"It's okay." I said holding up the fish I was roasting, "I'm good." Toothless looked at me as if asking if I was sure. A high pitched squawking sound came from somewhere nearby. Both Toothless and I turned to see four Terrible Terrors flying down and land near us. All four while squawking and screeching scuttled over to us quickly. One was green, one red, one yellow, and one orange. I slowly started to get to my feet; just one Terror can be pain to deal with but four?

The Terrors didn't seem very interested in me. They were more interested in the fish. Toothless covered the fish he caught with his paws and growled. He wasn't going to share with the Terrors! The Green Terror snatched up the salmon head and dragged it away to eat. The Yellow Terror tried to sneak up to grab the salmon head but the Green Terror noticed. Both little Dragons growled, sizing each other up, and rose up on their hind legs. The Green Terror shot out a jet of flame at the Yellow Terror. The Yellow Terror fell back whimpering. Toothless watched almost bored, I guess he had seen the Terrors fight over a fish head several times before. Suddenly one of the fish stood up and started wriggling away! Toothless watched surprised at first but then the Green Terror came into view pulling the fish away. How had that little guy gotten there so fast? Toothless grabbed the head of the fish and pulled and the Green Terror pulled back. Toothless won and gulped down the fish making a strange laughing noise. The Green Terror growled ferociously. It was almost funny to watch. The Green Terror rose up onto its hind legs and just before it breathed fire Toothless loosed a jet of flame right into the Green Terror's maw.

The Green Terror puffed up and fell to the ground smoking from the mouth and wobbled away whimpering slightly.

"Huh…" I said, "Not so fireproof on the inside are ya?" feeling a little sorry for the Green Terror I picked up one of the fish and tossed it to the Green Terror.

"Here you go." I said the Green Terror snatched up the fish and gulped it down whole. I sat back down leaning back against Toothless's side. The Terror looked at me curiously and scuttled over tilting its head then scuttled over next to me lifting my arm with its head and curled up next me purring like it was nothing more than a scaly cat with wings.

Completely confused I stroked the Terrors smooth scales as the little Dragon fell asleep. I had never seen Dragons act so…peaceful. And right then and there, I knew that this was how Dragons normally acted. They weren't vicious at all. They weren't the monstrous abominations that I been told they were, they were part of the world just as much as Humans were.

"Everything…Everything we know about you guys…is wrong…"

We returned to Berk. The whole trip I couldn't stop thinking about what I had just seen. I had just seen Dragons acting normally when they weren't threatened, the Terror curling up next to me, and…It was almost too much to take in…Everything I, Dad, Gobber, and everyone in Berk knew was wrong. My whole life I had been told that Dragons would kill you as soon as look at you and heard heroic feats of Dragon Slaying from the local Skalds.

But now after seeing Dragons for what they really were…Peaceful creatures…I couldn't stomach the thought of hurting a Dragon. Especially after befriending Toothless, the Night Fury, the most feared of Dragons.

It was dark by the time Toothless and I landed back in our canyon in Berk. Without saying a word I slid off the saddle and sat down on a rock trying to process everything I saw earlier. I stayed that way for several hours lost in thought…

Toothless nudged me with his snout. I started slightly then laid my hand on his head.

"Sorry Toothless…" I said, "I just…got a lot on my mind…" I petted his head still thinking. Soon I left to return to Berk. When I got back there were a few people outside, I barely noticed them. I passed Gobber on my way to house as he was coming back from the forge.

"Gobber, I'll be using the forge for a while tonight." I said absentmindedly.

"Ah, o' course lad, brewin'; up some new clever scheme for Dragon Training" He said as I passed, "But…why do ye look like a dirty cinder?" I got back to my house and after washing up went to the forge. I just sat at my desk resting my head on it pushing my pencil back and forth watching it roll away and back to me.

_This whole time…everything we've ever known about Dragons is wrong…_I thought as my pencil fell off course, I righted it and started pushing at it again, _What do I do now?_ If I suddenly stopped doing well in Dragon Training I would go back to being a weakling and everyone would go back to making it their business that my biggest mistake was being born. On the other hand, I just saw Dragons for what they really were and the thought of killing one for kicks made my stomach churn. There had to be something…If only I could think creatively enough…things could work out for both the Vikings and Dragons.

_CRASH!_

I jolted slightly and looked up, Dad had just come through the forge door and apparently gotten stuck due to his long horned helmet. Bwith a heave he managed to get unstuck from the door knocking several tools and weapons over.

"D-Dad!" I said, "You're back?" not really thinking about it, I started to shove my notes and sketches of Toothless out of view.

"Ye've been keepin' secrets Hiccup." Dad said looking serious.

"I…I have?" I said both feigning ignorance and having no idea what he was talking about at the same time.

"Just how long did ye think ye could keep it from me?" Dad asked even more serious, "Nothin', _nothin'_ happens here without me knowin' about it."

Starting to panic I leaned to the side covering my notes and sketches, "I…I don't know what you're…talking about…."

"So…Let's talk." Dad said then paused, "About that Dragon."

Only one thought registered.

_Toothless!_

I nearly passed out from shock! I was probably about to be accused of "going against the Viking way of life", "blasphemizing the gods", "consorting with the enemy". Someone must have seen me with Toothless! It was all over…Both Toothless and I were going to be dead meat!

"Oh gods…Dad…I'm sorry…" I groaned resigned to whatever fate lay ahead for me, "I…I…I was gonna tell you…But…I…I just didn't know how…"

Suddenly a huge grin broke across Dad's face and he started laughing. Big booming laughs, the kind he usually does after drinking. Taken completely by surprise and totally confused I suddenly found myself laughing too, rather feebly.

"Ehehehe….So…you're not upset?" I asked nervously and slightly wondering if this is one of Snotlout's pranks.

"What?" Dad said still laughing, "I was hopin' for this!" He laughed again slapping his belly.

I on the other hand had _no _idea where this conversation is going.

"You….were..?" I asked wondering why on earth Dad would be excited about me befriending a Night Fury.

Dad laughed again, "Just ye wait! It only gets better from here!" he said, "Jus wait til ye spill a Nadder's guts for the first time and mount yer first Groncle head on a post!" his eyes glazed over slightly as he remembered the first time he did those things. A month and a half ago, that would've sounded like the most thrilling thing ever. Now, just the thought of considering killing a Dragon made me feel sick…

I suppose I could see why Dad was so excited. I had gone from being "Hiccup the Useless" to "Hiccup the Useful" and my success in Dragon Training must have helped too. Dad used to look at me like he got the wrong kid, now it was more of a "I guess you were just a late bloomer" look.

"Ye really had me goin' son!" Dad said between bursts of laughter, "All those years of the worst Viking we had ever seen." He then looked up

. "Odin, it was rough." He said looking up then back at me, "I almost gave up on ye! Turns out all this time ye were jus holdin' out on me! Thor Almighty!" Dad clapped me heartily on the shoulder sending me flying backwards into a large basket where I got slightly stuck.

_That_ was not true. I knew full well that the reason I had been doing so well in Dragon training over the past month was because of being with Toothless, noticing something interesting, then just having to try it out at Training and my own impulsiveness.

While I struggled to get unstuck from the basket, for the first time in my life Dad looked me proudly. He was finally proud of me. With a grunt I freed myself from the basket and sat back down in the stool at the desk. With grin Dad pulled up another stool and sat down.

"With ye doin' so well in Trainin'." He said scooting forward, "We finally have somethin' to talk about." He leaned forward smiling expectantly.

My mind went completely blank. An awkward silence followed for a whole minute. I fidgeted slightly as Dad leaned forwards slightly further. Finally, Dad spoke up.

"I…I know it's a bit early…" he said unwrapping something I hadn't noticed, "I know it's not til the day after tomorrow…but I brought ye somethin' to keep ye safe in the ring…Happy Birthday Hiccup." He held out a horned helmet. I had completely forgotten that it would be my eighteenth birthday in two days.

"Dad…" I gasped taking the helmet by the horns, "Thanks…" The helmet looked like it was just my size. This was one thing I had been really looking forward to, when I'd receive my horned helmet and finally be acknowledged as man. Think of the horned helm as a "coming of age" thing. I ran my hand over the helmet's top admiring the craftsmanship.

"It's half of yer mother's breastplate." Dad said.

_Mom's what?_ My hand lifted from the helmet of its own accord and I looked up. Dad tapped the side of his own horned helmet.

"It's a matching set." He explained blushing slightly at recalling Mom, "It…uh…ye know…It keeps her close."

Slightly disturbed I lifted the helmet from my lap and set it on the table almost afraid to wear it for Mom's sake…I wasn't sure about Dad or others but it seemed a little indecent to me to make a helmet out of a woman's breastplate.

Another awkward silence followed. There was only one way to escape safely.

I yawned.

"I-I'd better get to bed soon." I said through a huge fake yawn,  
I've got Training tomorrow."

"Ah, yes…" Dad said awkwardly and getting up also slightly relieved, "It was a good talk." But we didn't actually have one Dad…

"Y-yeah…" I said, "Thanks for the uh…breast hat…"

"See ye in the mornin' Hiccup," Dad said about to go through the door, "I'm real proud of ye son." Then struggled to get through the door getting slightly stuck halfway and knocking over even more stuff left for our house. I quickly gathered up my notes and sketches and making sure that they were securely in place in my notebook doused the lantern and also left for the house.

The next day at Dragon Training, it's a series of sessions to decide who will kill the Monstrous Nightmare tomorrow. First the Terrible Terror; Tuffnut was out almost immediately, the Terror must like the taste of his nose. The Nadder; Snotlout nearly got fried to a crisp. The ZippleBack; Ruffnut also nearly got fried. Now the Groncle-a full grown and very hungry one-and it was just me and Astrid. To be honest, I was actually hoping that Astrid would win. Killing a Dragon just did not seem at all heroic to me anymore. Astrid and I both ducked behind a wood shield and I was just going to get to another one when Astrid grabbed the back of my vest and yanked me back down!

"Not this time!" She snapped almost completely insane with anger, "No lucky shots for _you_. I'm taking this guy down!"

"Go ahead." I said, "By all means, be my guest." I said. I'd much rather she'd win anyway. If she did, I wouldn't have to kill the Nightmare in front of the whole tribe-if there's one thing I hate more than crowds…it's a crowd watching me.

Astrid sprang up and rolled from wood shield to wood shield. Perfect precision, if anyone deserved to win this, she did. I also felt rather guilty about upstaging her during the Training. Gods…I'm so impulsive…I stood up to watch Astrid and saw Dad in the crowd watching. Not really knowing why I did it and knowing I must have looked rather stupid wearing my horned helmet I raised my axe at least trying to _look_ heroic. A loud cheer went up from the gathered villagers and I slunk back down totally embarrassed and quickly scrambled for another shield to duck under.

"This time…" I heard Astrid say, "This time…THIS TIME FOR SURE!" She let out a savage war cry and at that moment I stood up and the Groncle noticed me.

I have no idea how it happened. It just happened. One second the Groncle was zooming right at me then the next was down and out at my feet twitching. Astrid stared at me looking just as confused as I was for a few seconds then she completely lost it cursing me in every way possible swinging her axe while cheers went up from the crowd.

A little nervously I took a step away from the still twitching Groncle, "C-can..Can I go now?" I asked, "I'm kinda late for-AGH!" Astrid was suddenly in front of me holding her axe right at my neck!

"Late…for _what_!" She demanded an almost manic look on her face.

"LATE FOR WHAT _EXACTLY__!"_ Astrid shouted again. Gobber had to get between us for fear she might tear me apart!

"Hold it!" Dad shouted, "The Elder will decide." All three of us looked up. In front of Dad stood the Tribe Elder a small elderly woman with a tall oak staff. Gobber held a hand over Astrid; the Elder frowned and shook her head. A slightly amused sound came from the crowd. Gobber held his other hand over me and to my horror…she nodded.

Astrid glared at me with every intent to rip me from limb to limb and feed me to the Groncle. I stepped back flinching slightly and the next second, I was suddenly swarmed by Snotlout, Ruffnut, Tuffnut, and Fishlegs hoisted me up onto his shoulder.

"Congratulations Hiccup!" Gobber cheered doing an on the spot jig, "Ye get to kill the Dragon!"

Half horrified half slightly flattered I was almost at a loss for words.

"I…I…I don't know what to say…" I stammered as Fishlegs paraded out of the ring with me on his shoulder, "I'm so…so…so..."

Leaving.

* * *

**Dat Dah Dah! That's the seventh chapter!**

**I know I can;t make excuses for making you all wait so long for this chapter so i won't but I did want to do this right since the flight scene is in there. Oh yeah and about that slight Avatar reference, I didn't nottice it until I was almost done but when I read it over it worked. And speaking of the flight scene I have to say the only way to describe the part where Hiccup and Toothless flew through those rocks is "Two Hearts Beating as One" am I right?**

**Stay tuned for Chapter eight folks!**

**Chocobo Scribe signing out!**


	8. I Take Astrid for a Spin

**Happy late Memorial Day everyone! Before I go off into my usaul ramblings let;s all take a minute of silence for the fallen soldiers in service tou our country.**

**...**

**Romantic scenes are my achillies heel...I hope I did the romantic flight scenf rom Hiccup's POV alright...let me know I need to edit and I will do.**

**Anyway...**

**Standard Dislcaimers apply, R&R or Toothless will GRRR!**

* * *

**Chapter Eight: I Take Astrid for a Spin**

_And I want a moment to be real,_

_Want to touch things I don't feel,_

_Wanna hold on and feel I belong._

_And how can the world want me to change?_

_They're the ones that stay the same,_

_They can't see me,_

_But I'm still here…_

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

As soon as I was free of the crowd I ran back home and started packing. I took only the essentials. A full water skin, a few changes of clothes, some provisions, a short sword to defend myself (I recently found out that I had a pretty decent hand with a sword so I forged one of my own), some tools for repairs on Toothless's saddle, a cloak for cold weather, a blanket, and my notes. Food I wasn't too worried about, Toothless could hunt for both of us. I put everything into a large basket and stuffed my fur vest in and put on my flight vest. I slung the basket over my shoulder and left through the back door and making sure nobody was following me took one of my alternate routes to Toothless's canyon-double backing several times just to be safe.

_What was I thinking?_ I thought as I trudged through the undergrowth, _What could've possessed me to knock out that Groncle? Now I have to kill a Dragon!_ That's another thing about my impulsiveness; some things just don't seem real to me until I'm staring it in the face. I _knew_ that the best in Dragon Training would kill the Nightmare, but I just couldn't quite connect it with me. All I was doing was just seeing I something that affected Toothless would also affect another Dragon.

Why did I have to so impulsive?

I arrived at Toothless's canyon and climbed down the stone ledges easily. He wasn't anywhere to be seen, he was probably curled up somewhere nearby taking a nap. I hefted the basket higher on my shoulder glancing around for Toothless.

"We're leaving." I said, "Let's pack up. Looks like you and me are taking a little vacation…" I sighed hading for the boulders.

"…Forever…" I finished. I was going to have to go all the way to Vinland I _knew_ it. Even though settlement plans didn't go exactly as planned…I dropped the basket onto the ground and opened it to make sure I had everything I would need.

"Oh man…what was I _thinking_?" I mumbled rummaging through the contents of the basket. I had everything I needed, good. I stood up and started to tighten the straps on my flight vest, when I heard a loud scrapping sound. I looked up and saw Astrid! She was sitting on the boulder right in front of me sharpening her double bladed axe!

"AH! What the-!" I yelped startled and jolting back then regaining my composure, "Uh…uh…Wh-what are you doing here?"

Astrid scrapped her whetstone across the axe one more time, lifted it and apparently satisfied set the whetstone down, "I want to know what's going on." She said. She jumped down from the boulder and advanced on me, "No one just _gets_ as good as you do. _Especially_ you."

"Start talking!" she ordered, back away looking at her axe nervously. I hoped she wasn't planning on using it on _me_.

"I…I…I…" I stammered.

"Are you _training_ with someone?" Astrid asked still advancing on me.

"T-Training?" I said trying to sound innocent, "N-No…I uh…"

"Better not involve _this_!" Astrid said grabbing me by the straps of my flight vest and looking at it distastefully.

"I…I…I know…" I said trying to stay calm, "I know this looks really bad, but you see this is uh…" I trailed off as Astrid let go of me and walked past me. What was I supposed to tell her it was?

There was a sudden jerk behind me and I fell back as Astrid yanked me down.

"AH!" I landed with a dull thud flat on my back. There was a loud groaning sound-it sounded almost exactly like Toothless! Astrid gasped and stepped forwards-and on me, right on my gut.

_Toothless!_

Not even caring that Astrid just stepped on me I sprang up and ran over to her.

"You're right. You're right. You're right." I bleated finally catching up with Astrid and managing to get in front of her, "I'm through with the lies."

Astrid stopped in her tracks.

"The truth is…" I said putting a hand on her shoulder as insurance, "I've been making _outfits_."

Okay, okay, okay! I know I'm lying again. But this situation called for it. I couldn't let Astrid see Toothless.

"You got me. It's time everyone knew." I said taking her hand and putting it on the straps of my flight vest, "Drag me back, go ahead, let's go-." Astrid grabbed my arm and twisted it back with a sickening _crack_ nearly breaking my arm and shoved me to the ground.

"OW!" I shouted cradling my right arm (it hurt!), "Wh-why would you do that!" I tried to get back up, but Astrid kicked me back down on the shoulder. I groaned as I hit the dirt again and Astrid stood over me glaring angrily at me.

"_That_'s for the lies." She said, she held her axe shaft down over me and dropped it. It hit me right in the gut-which was very painful-and bounced right back up into her hand, "And _that's_ for everything else!"

"Ooohhh…" I groaned and rolled over clutching my stomach. This had to be one of the worst days of my life. I get picked to kill a Dragon and beaten up by the love of my life on the same day!

Toothless roared. Astrid gasped as I struggled to get back to my feet.

"Aw man…" I groaned, "That hurt…" I turned around…

"GET DOWN!" Astrid shouted.

…And was immediately tackled to the ground by Astrid-her arm hitting the exact place where she stepped on me and hit me with the shaft of her axe. All the air was knocked out of me and stars spun around in front of me when I hit the dirt. Astrid sprang up holding her axe at the ready as Toothless roared again.

"RUN!" She shouted to me, "RUN!" I looked up and saw Toothless charging right at her!

_NO!_ Astrid readied to swing her axe, Toothless lunged, I sprang up from the ground and rushed at Astrid grabbing the shaft of her axe and tackled her to ground and pushed the axe away as far as I could. I sprang back to my feet and rushed forwards.

"No! No! It's okay." I said holding my hands up staying between Toothless and Astrid, "She's a friend." Toothless reared up on his hind legs and flapped his wings to avoid falling over and thudded back down on all fours growling and glaring suspiciously at Astrid.

"It's alright." I said turning around to face Astrid. I felt a bump from behind me and saw Toothless stick his head out. I got one arm around his neck and put my hand on his snout-trying to prevent him from lunging at Astrid and making a meal out of her. Yes, I did know Toothless was just trying to protect me but I didn't want Astrid to hurt Toothless or Toothless hurting her.

"You just scared him." I said knowing full well that Toothless was not scared in the slightest. Astrid didn't have an eel with her.

Astrid looked at me as if I had gone completely insane-which was almost true, "I scared _him_!" then froze, "Who is _him_?"

I let go of Toothless and stood up straight ready to bridge the gap.

"Astrid, Toothless." I said gesturing to Toothless, 'Toothless, Astrid." I said gesturing to Astrid. Toothless growled at her bearing his fangs. Astrid shook her head stepping back not believing what she was seeing. The turned around and ran away-back to Berk.

This was not good.

"Dat dah dah! We're dead!" I said my shoulders drooping, I turned around to see Toothless heading back to the pond!

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Where do you think _you're_ going?" I said to Toothless's retreating back. I groaned then ran over jumping into the saddle and securing myself in, "Come on Toothless! We can't let her get back to Berk and blab to everyone! My dad will kill me if he finds out!"

I didn't even want to imagine what I'd be in for if Dad found out about Toothless. I shifted my foot in the left stirrup and we took off after Astrid. We had to stop her before she got back to Berk! We flew low over the forest floor. I twisted around in the saddle looking for Astrid. Pretty soon, Toothless and I caught up to her. Astrid was running back up the trail as fast as her feet could carry her. She kept looking over her shoulder as if she thought I was running after her and looking everywhere but _up_.

"There!" I said and Toothless swooped down to her.

"!" judging from Astrid's screaming, I was sure that Toothless had caught her, "OH GREAT ODIN'S GHOST! NO! NO! NO! NO! NO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! I'M TOO YOUNG TO DIE!" We flew up to the treetops and Toothless dropped Astrid onto the topmost branch of a towering oak tree. We landed on the tip causing it to bend forward.

Astrid swung from the tree branch looking _very_ angry, "HICCUP! GET ME DOWN FROM HERE!" she shouted.

"You have to give me a chance to explain!" I said pleadingly. I had to at least explain myself to her and hopefully, convince her to not tell anyone back in Berk about Toothless.

Astrid rolled her eyes and swung hand over hand towards the tree trunk, "I, am not listening to _anything_ you have to say!" I had expected that. If she won't listen to me, then only one other option was open to me.

"Then I won't speak." I said, "Just let me show you."

Silence.

"Please Astrid…" I added earnestly. Astrid grunted and pulled herself up on the tree branch. I held my hand out for her as she reached for Toothless-who growled warningly at her. Astrid glared back slightly annoyed and grasped the saddle and pulled herself up. She looked down at my hand and swatted it away. With another grunt she swung herself up into the saddle behind me.

"Alright." Astrid said from behind me, "Now get me down!"

"Toothless, down." I said leaning forwards and patting him on the neck, "Gently."

Toothless snorted and spread his wings out and we slowly rose up as the treetop unbent. I twisted around in the saddle slightly to face Astrid.

"See?" I said, "Nothing to be afraid of."

I spoke _way_ too soon.

Toothless thrust his wings down, there was a sudden lurch, and we were barreling upwards at top speed! I yelled and grabbed the saddle and held on. Astrid started screaming which got progressively worse the higher we went until Toothless was almost nose up!

"TOOTHLESS!" I shouted, "What is wrong with you! Bad Dragon!" Why was he flying like he wanted Astrid to fall off?

Then he leveled out and the still screaming Astrid suddenly had me in a death grip. I suddenly found myself laughing totally embarrassed, this was going as badly as I thought.

"He…He's not usually like this!" I said. Astrid squeezed her arms and legs around me as we started to tilt to the right. I knew what was coming next…We were going to fall!

"Oh no…" I groaned bracing myself for the fall. Toothless rolled over and we plunged down to the ocean with both Astrid and I screaming. She squeezed me so hard she nearly crushed my ribs!

"GHhk! Astrid! Can't breathe!"

"!"

_SPLASH!_

We burst out of the water and bounced across the surface. Astrid still screaming it was taking everything I had just to hold on and not panic!

"Toothless what are you-" _Splash_ "Doing!" _Splash!_ We need her to-" _Splash!_ "_Like_ us!"

Toothless climbed higher into the air and started spinning crazily.

"And now…he's spinning…" I said starting to feel a little queasy, "Thank you for nothing _you useless reptile!_" Toothless went into a dive and tucking his wings to his sides we were tumbling through the air and gaining speed as we plummeted towards the ocean.

"Okay!" Astrid yelped sounding on the verge of tears, "Okay I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Just get me off the thing!" I'd never seen her this scared before, she always had been so tough especially in Training. I grasped her hand feeling really guilty about scaring her like this.

_I'm so dead…_

Toothless spread his wings out, pulled out of his dive, leveled out and we shot upwards. We were gliding over the ocean towards Berk with the sun setting behind us. I pulled back on Toothless's saddle and we climbed higher and higher into the clouds. Finally, Astrid started to calm down. I let go of her hand and she relaxed her death grip on me. We soared through the clouds, slightly pink from the sunset and flew right under a cloud.

"Wow…" Astrid said I looked over my shoulder to see her reach up to touch the cloud we were under. Starting to laugh she reached up with her other hand as we soared past under the cloud. We climbed higher into the clouds, and it seemed as if we had just flown into a different world. We flew past several arching clouds and for one instant I could've sworn we strayed into Asgard as the clouds turned almost gold from the setting sun.

We passed right through a cloud and when we came out, night had fallen and the stars were out almost close enough to touch. Astrid and both looked up as the lights of the gods appeared above us casting an almost otherworldly glow on the clouds below us. We glided over the clouds descending slowly and once we were over the clouds, below us shimmering was Berk. Toothless glanced back at us and grinned toothily.

I felt Astrid's arms tighten around my torso slightly and out of the corner of my eye saw she had rested her chin on shoulder. She was smiling. Maybe today hadn't been so bad after all. Riding Toothless with Astrid on a night like this, it felt good-really good. We flew past the guardian god statues and banked left flying above Berk and climbing higher into the sky and over the ocean.

"Alright, I admit it." Astrid said laughing slightly, "This is pretty cool. It's amazing…_He's_ amazing." Astrid patted Toothless on his side. I grinned slightly remember feeling very much the same way the first time Toothless and I flew together. We continued to glide over the ocean and suddenly things got very subdued…

"Hiccup, what are you gonna do?" Astrid asked sounding worried, "Your final exam is tomorrow, you know what you have to do!"

_Oh no…_

"You have to…"The remembering Toothless Astrid whispered, "You have to kill a Dragon."

"Ugh…don't remind me…" I groaned. I had completely forgotten. Tomorrow, my eighteenth birthday, I would have to kill the Monstrous Nightmare as my final test and would also double as my coming of age ceremony. It wasn't going to be one of my best birthdays…I felt an odd chill as Toothless's ears suddenly perked up.

"Toothless?" I asked. Had he heard something? Suddenly we banked right and right into a thick patch of fog Astrid and I hadn't noticed! Toothless apparently knew where he was going-I think. Astrid and I couldn't see a thing through the fog. I turned my head around straining my eyes to see through the gloom.

There was a loud roar and we nearly crashed into what looked like a Monstrous Nightmare! Like I needed reminding of tomorrow! I steered Toothless away from the Nightmare but was unable to turn him around. Another one flew right by us. It hadn't nottided us, yet.

"Get down!" I whispered urgently to Astrid and we both flattened ourselves on Toothless's back. Soon, we were surrounded by Dragons!

"Toothless…" I said trying to get his attention but either he was ignoring me or couldn't hear me. A few seconds later, several more Dragons-all kinds came into view carrying fish, sheep, pigs, and other various livestock. It was then I realized, we had just flown right into Helhiem's Gate!

"What's going on?" Astrid said.

"I don't know…" I said glancing around, "It looks like they're bringing in their kills…"

"So…what does that make _us_?" Astrid asked and my stomach dropped right to the bottom of the ocean.

_Toothless…Both Astrid and I trust you please don't betray that…_

We had to get out of here. Now.

"Toothless…get us out of here." I said starting to panic slightly. Toothkess shook his head frantically. He was trying to tell me something…something important but whatever it was I was at a total loss…Tall towering rocks came into view and suddenly all at once the Dragons lurched to the side and sped thorugh the rocks turning at irregular intervals. I tried to remember the route; left; right; left; left…but lost track. Clearly the Dragons knew where they were going almost as if pulled by some unseen force…All Astrid and I could do was hold on and pray.

We burst out of the fog and a large volcanic island towered above us. All the Dragons were flying into small cavern opening that pockmarked the volcano. Was this the Dragon's Nest? Toothless flapped his wings picking up speed and we plunged into one of the cavern openings taking several sharp stomach lurching turns along with the other Dragons.

A Nightmare snorted something to Toothless the Nightmare looked almost worried glancing at us then at Toothless almost as if saying: "Be careful with them". Toothless nodded and made a similar sound. As far as I could tell, it didn't look like we'd be eaten. We flew out of the dark twisting tunnel and into an enormous red mist filled chamber. And everywhere, on the cave walls, on rock ledges, in small caves in the walls, flying around us were Dragons! Thousands of them! This was their nest! And somehow, Astrid and I had inadvertently found it.

"What my dad wouldn't give to find this place…" I muttered looking around at all the Dragons who…for some reason seemed afraid. We flew over the red mist and all the Dragons dropped their kills into the mist. That didn't make any sense…They raider Berk for food to eat right? Toothless glanced around looking for a place to land and banked left and landed on a large ledge and ducked behind a large stalagmite hiding us from view but still able to see everything. Astrid and I leaned forwards to watch the Dragons drop their food.

"Well it's reassuring to know that all our food's been dumped down a hole." I commented sarcastically. Why would the Dragons go to the trouble of raiding our village for food only to drop it into a hole?

"They're not even eating it…" Astrid said just as confused as I was, "So why…?" she trailed off as we both noticed a Groncle trundle into the chamber with no food in sight. The Groncle hovered over the mist, opened its mouth a tiny fish slid down its tongue and fell into the mist. Toothless tensed under Astrid and I and fidgeted on edge and a very bad feeling washed over me…

The Groncle panted like a dog and started scratching its ear with one of its hind legs. A deafening roar filled he chamber and all the Dragons shrieked in alarm and flew away to hide! A large heavily armored Dragon-like head rose up from the mist jaws opened wide and they snapped shut around the Groncle! I gasped it…whatever "it" was ate the Groncle!

"Wh-what is that thing!" panic started to bubble up inside me. The monster roared swinging its head around roaring as the Dragons screeched and took off flying around the monster's head. A Nadder flew right past us, saw us and squawked something and flew on.

"Toothless…get us out. _Now_!" I said starting to panic. Toothless spread his wings out, I shifted my foot in the left stirrup and we were off! Toothless flapped his wings as fast as he could for maximum speed. Good thing too…we flew right past the monster's snout and it tried to snap its jaws around us like it did the Groncle! Thank the gods Toothless was the faster. We climbed higher and higher to the crater in the volcano and the Dragons all swarmed around us as we flew out! Toothless put on a burst of speed and soon we were going back through the fog and on our way back to Berk! We burst out of the fog safe at last. Astrid and I were gasping trying to catch our breath from our narrow escape and trying to process what we had just seen.

During the flight back to Berk we tried to figure out what that "thing" was. I was sure no one had ever seen anything like it. Or if anyone had…had ended up as lunch. All we knew was that the Dragons were giving it food but why?

"So that's why the Dragon's have been raiding our village…" Astrid said after several theories on what that thing could've possibly been, "To bring that thing food."

Somehow…that didn't seem entirely right…

"No…" Is aid shaking my head frowning, "That can't be…It just…can't…"

"No, it totally makes sense."Astrid insisted, "It's like a giant…bee hive. She's the queen, they're the workers and the Queen controls them."

But could you really call something that eats Dragons a Dragon? It didn't _feel_ like a Dragon. Even though the only times I was around Dragons was with Toothless or in Training or the occasional Raid the Dragons never felt…evil. That was exactly what that thing back at the Dragon's Nest had felt like.

We landed back in Toothless's canyon and Astrid immedaitly leapt off and dashed to the stone ledges.

"Come on!" she said motioning to me to follow, "We've gotta tell your dad!"

"NO!" I shouted leaping off Toothless and catching up with Astrid to stop her, "No…if…if we tell Dad, the townspeople will kill Toothless. We have to think this through." If Toothless were killed, I didn't know what I'd do. I couldn't let that happen to Toothless…not my best friend.

Astrid looked at me slightly bemused, "We just found the very thing Vikings have been looking for ever since Vikings first settled Berk and you want to keep it a secret, to protect your _pet Dragon_!"

I took a deep breath, "Yes." I said. I didn't care what happened to me anymore, it didn't seem that important. But I knew I would do whatever I had to do to protect Toothless. Astrid looked at me slightly impressed.

"So," She said, "What do we do?"

I thought for a few moments, "Give me until morning." I said, "I'll think of something."

"Alright." Astrid said nodding taking a step towards me, "And one more thing…"

_WHAM!_

Astrid punched me!

"OW!" I shouted grabbing my arm.

"_That_ was for kidnapping me."Astrid said grumpily. I looked over my shoulder at Toothless who was drinking from the pond he looked over at me and snorted giving me the "You're on your own" look and turned back to the pond. I suppose I did deserve that…

"And this…" astrid said sheepishly and I could swear she was blushing, she pulled me towards her and…kissed me on my cheek!

"That was for…everything else…" Astird said smiling as she released me then started up the stone ledges to return to Berk, "See you tomorrow!" she called down in parting and she was gone. My face grew hot. Astrid had just kissed me! For several minutes I just stood there in a daze until I felt Toothless's breath ruffle my hair. I turned and my face grew even hotter at the slightly amused look on his face.

"Wh-what are you looking at?" I bleated slightly defensively but just as quickly my slight embarrassment passed. I needed to find out more about that thing we saw at the Dragon's Nest.

"Toothless…I need to ask you a few things." I said, "About what we saw on your island…" Maybe Toothless knew something and that was why he showed it to me and Astrid. Toothless sat down on his hind legs ready to listen and nodded.

"Was that thing your Queen?" I asked.

Toothless shook his head. So it wasn't their Queen so…what was it?

"Did that thing invade your home?" I asked.

Toothless nodded. And a sense of horror welled up inside me.

"Was that even a Dragon?" I asked my voice almost a whisper.

Toothless shook his head. If it wasn't a Dragon then what was it?

"So…if you don't bring food for that thing…it'll eat the Dragons?" I asked.

Toothless nodded and suddenly _everything_ made sense.

"That explains everything…" I gasped suddenly feeling sick. The Dragons raided us because they had no other choice. It was for their own survival not to get their next meal, but to avoid becoming a meal themselves. The ground spun under my feet slightly and I sank down onto a rock holding my head in my hands. Now killing the Nightmare or any Dragon seemed even _more_ repulsive!

"This whole time…you were just defending yourselves…" I muttered, "And everyone in Berk was out to get a name for themselves…" I closed my eyes and a plan started forming in my head. Somehow…I had to convince everyone in Berk that Dragons weren't blood thirsty monsters. It had to be in the most public and convincing way possible.

_My coming of age ceremony…_I thought, _Maybe…_I muttered to myself for several minutes thinking it over. Finally…I knew what I had to do. When everyone would expect me to kill the Nightmare, instead I would try to gain its trust. After all, I befriended a Night Fury the most feared of Dragons. Surely, I could do the same with another. I hope…

"Yes…That's it…" I said, "It's the only way…but what if…" There was a very good chance I could be killed. I had no other choice. I had to convince the townspeople that everything we've ever known about Dragons was wrong. I had to help Toothless-maybe-as the Skalds would put it- maybe it was my _wyrd_ to help Toothless and the Dragons. If I could just get the townspeople just enough of them to listen to me and believe me we could do something for the Dragons.

I stood up, resigned to what I was about to do tomorrow. Taking a deep breath I looked back at Toothless and tried to smile not wanting to worry him, "I'll see you in the morning." I said then on impulse stepped forward wrapping my arms around Toothless's neck. Toothless purred and wrapped a wing around me. I was safe, secure, nothing could hurt me. I rested my head on Toothless's shoulder wondering if tomorrow would the last day I'd ever see. After a few minutes I let go of Toothless..

"I'd better get going, I need some rest." I said already feeling totally exhausted. Toothless purred again, that sound felt so reassuring…I smiled weakly and picking up my basket climbed out of our canyon and headed back to Berk with strong sense of dread hanging over me.

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**And we're approaching the turning point anf the final two chapters. Stay tuned for Chapter Nine readers!**

**Oh and as for what "Wyrd" means its the Saxon word for "Fate" and where the word "Weird" is derived from and you pronounce it the same way. If you've read any Norse mythology or at least the Inheritance Cycle you probably recognized the word and qhat it means. And no i did not pluck "Wyrd" from Eragon It really is the Saxon word for fate. and wrapping up that etemology lesson...stay tuned for chapter nine folks and remember to review this chapter!**

**Chocobo Scribe **


	9. I Don't Kill the Dragon

**And after a long wait that was sweltering hot at my end with no a/c and only one plug into the internet chapter nine is here! The good news about this chapter is once I started writting the Kill Ringe scene I was on a roll and only stopped for dinner, a hunger that only curry noddles can cure!**

**Well enough of my ramblings read an review or Toothless will Grrr!**

**Standard disclaimers apply.**

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**Chapter Nine: I Don't Kill the Dragon**

_They can't tell me who to be,_

'_Cause I'm not what they see,_

_Yeah the world is still sleepin',_

_While I keep on dreamin' for me,_

_And their words are just whispers and lies that I'll never believe…_

I did not sleep well that night.

First, it took me hours to finally fall asleep over everything that could possibly go wrong and what would happen if someone found out about Toothless. Once I was asleep, I had no peaceful rest; instead I had nightmares about the same thing that had been keeping me up. I was killed; Toothless was discovered and killed; I managed to calm the Nightmare and ended up being banished; Both Toothless and I were killed. It went on and on until I finally woke up the next day in a cold sweat.

Sitting up in bed, the first thing I noticed was I was covered in an extra blanket. Dad must have put it over me during the night. I looked out the window it would be a few hours before sunrise. It was my eighteenth birthday.

Happy Birthday to me…

In a few hours I'd be down in the Kill Ring to kill the Monstrous Nightmare in front of the whole village. I looked back at my knees feeling sick. I knew I wasn't going to kill the Monstrous Nightmare and I needed everyone to see so a crowd watching me didn't worry me at all. What worried me was what if something went wrong? My hands started shaking, I clenche them into fists trying to stop the shaking.

_No! I can't back down now. Have to do this…but…if something goes wrong…_I took a deep breath, _Odin help me…_I got out of bed looking out the window in the direction towards Toothless's canyon.

I decided to go visit Toothless. If I saw him, maybe that would help, after all I'd need all the help I could get. I pulled on my boots and vest and being as quiet as I could so I wouldn't wake Dad up crept outside. Outside, Astrid was waiting for me.

"Astrid?" I said surprised to see her.

"I thought I'd come wish you Happy Birthday." Astrid said, "And…here…for luck." She held out a small Thor's Hammer charm.

"Astrid…"I said taking the charm, "Thanks…" I put the charm around my neck and tucked it under my tunic. I was going to need all the luck I could get.

"Are you going to visit Toothless?" Astrid asked.

"Yeah." I said, "Did you want to come?" Astrid nodded and making sure no one was following us we both hiked through the forest to Toothless's canyon.

"So…" Astrid said, "Were you able to think if anything?"

I nodded, "There's only one way…I have to put an end to this war."

"How?" Astrid asked.

"When they let the Nightmare out in the Kill Ring…I won't kill it." I said, "I'll show everyone everything we've ever known is wrong. If I can convince enough people…maybe we can do something to help the Dragons." I shuddered slightly at recalling seeing that "thing" back at the Dragon's Nest.

"You're thinking about what we saw last night, aren't you?" Astrid asked I nodded, "Last night I looked in the Dragon Manual to see if there was anything about it and…nothing…" I turned to face Astrid.

"Astrid…I don't think that was even a Dragon…it just looked like one." I said, "I mean…can you really call that thing a Dragon if it eats Dragons?"

"I guess not…" Astrid said. We continued through the undergrowth in silence for a few minutes.

"How are you going to convince everyone?" Astrid asked breaking the silence.

"I'll try to gain the Nightmare's trust." I said, "I did it with Toothless, a Night Fury." Astrid nodded looking a little worried.

"Does Toothless know?" she asked. I shook my head, "Hiccup…"

I cut her off, "I don't want to worry Toothless." I said, "There's the chance that something might go wrong and…" I trailed off unable to finish. Astrid raised her eyebrows slightly.

"I think 'not worrying' Toothless is pretty much impossible." She said and she was right. Toothless always seemed to know how I was feeling or if something was bothering me. At first I couldn't feel anything about him but recently I had been able to tell what mood he was in. It as if there was some connection between us.

"But, you're right…" Astrid continued, "If Toothless knew what you were planning to do and if something…bad happened…I don't know how he'd cope." If I died…what would happen to Toothless? What would he do once he knew that? I shuddered trying not to think about it. I was already terrified enough right now, I couldn't back down. Not now.

We approached Toothless's canyon and Astrid and I continued to talk as quietly as we could. I knew Toothless was nearby; I didn't want him to hear us. If he knew what I was planning, I didn't think I'd be able carry it out.

"I have to do this." I said, "It's the only way."

We were in Toothless's canyon. I looked up and there was Toothless waiting for us. I couldn't help but smile' just seeing him felt reassuring. Everything was going to be okay.

"Toothless!" I ran over to him throwing my arms around his neck and resting my head against his scaly hide. For Toothless' sake and everyone else's I had to do what I had to do. Toothless purred softly. I tried to stay calm but even so I suddenly started trembling.

_What if something goes wrong? What if this is the last time I'll ever see Toothless? What if…_A bunch of other "what ifs" ran through my head one after the other. I must have worried Toothless because first he snorted slightly alarmed then purred trying to calm me down. Two large wings wrapped around me in a protective shell.

After a few minutes, I let go of Toothless feeling a little calmer and more driven to do what I was planning. For Toothless's sake, it had to work.

"Thanks Toothless." I said I had calmed down somewhat but my hands were still shaking slightly, "It's…There's something I have to do-it's really important that I do it…" Toothless looked at me with large worried eyes.

"I'm sorry…" I said looking at my feet, "I…I don't want to worry you…" But I was sure I had just made Toothless even _more_ worried. I gently petted Toothless's soft back nose, my hand still trembling slightly. This could possibly be the last time I'd ever see Toothless. I was tempted to just get on Toothless's back and fly away from here but that would be running away, I couldn't do that anymore. I had to face my fears now.

"Hiccup," Astrid said from outside Toothless's wings, "We need to get back before anyone notices we're gone." I lifted my hand from Toothless's nose and hugged him again.

"I have to go now." I said trying to hold back my tears, "I'll see you later…I hope…" I let go of Toothless and slightly reluctantly he let me go too. Astrid and I climbed back up the stone ledges out of the canyon and we were on our way back to Berk with me wondering if I'd come out of the Kill Ring alive or end up as a Dragon's breakfast.

By the time we were back in Berk almost everyone was up and outside getting ready for my coming of age ceremony and my birthday feast which would follow after. Or so they thought, they were expecting to see me kill the Nightmare and make the final rites of passage into adulthood. Instead, they were going to see something _very_ different. All I could do was pray that nothing would go wrong. I clutched the Thor's Hammer charm under my tunic as Astrid and I made out way into town.

"Ah, there ye two are." Dad said walking up to us, "Bin' out for a mornin' walk?"

I nodded not able to speak. Dad smiled sympathetically at me, "Don' worry. It's perfectly normal to feel a bit nervous before killin' yer first Dragon before the whole village. It'll all go away once the fight starts. Jus' imagine the moment of victory an' ye'll be fine." He wrapped a large arm around my shoulders handing me my horned helmet. I took it making sure my hands didn't touch the top the fact that it was made from half of Mom's breastplate still unnerved me…Dad led Astrid and I to the Kill Ring regaling us with his coming of age ceremony.

"…The worst part is really the night before." Dad said, "Ah, but once the fight begins…ye get so caught up in the moment…" As much as talk of killing a Dragon made me feel nauseous…at least Dad was finally treating me like I was his son and not some orphan that got dumped on his doorstep.

We arrived at the Kill Ring, it was completely decked out with tapestries surrounding it. Everyone in Berk had turned up to watch. The crowd was the least of my worries, what worried me most was what if something went wrong? Dad left Astrid and I to a large platform in the back while I went down to the entrance of the Kill Ring where Gobber was making some last minute preparations. I stood in front of the cage door holding my helmet and telling my self to calm down.

The townspeople started cheering loudly and Dad started to speak.

"Well I can show my face in public again!"

Gales of laughter.

"If someone had told me that in a few short weeks that Hiccup would go from being…uh…Hiccup to placing first in Dragon Training," Dad said, "Well, I would've tied 'im to a mast and shipped 'im off! For fear he'd gone mad!" he laughed as more cheers went up from the townspeople until they all went quiet.

"But, here we are." Dad said, "An' no one's more surprised, or more proud than I am."

I gulped slightly. Dad was actually proud of me and here I was about to smash it into a million pieces.

"Today my boy becomes a Viking! Today, HE BECOMES _ONE OF US_!" loud cheering went up.

_Mom…what do I do? How can I get Dad and everyone to understand?_ I thought looking up at the crowd outside the Kill Ring as Dad walked over to a large stone chair to watch.

"Be careful with that Dragon." Astrid said from behind me cutting into my thoughts.

"It's…not the Dragon I'm worried about." I said watching Dad sit down. What _really_ worried me was that Dad would reject me again.

"So, you're still going to do it?" Astrid asked.

I nodded, "I have to try." I said, "I have to put an end to all this killing." I turned around to face Astrid.

"Astrid, if…if something…goes wrong…promise me they won't find Toothless." I said. As long as Toothless was alive, I almost didn't care if I ended up as a dark spot on the wall.

"Okay, I promise." Astrid said nodding then looked worried, "Just…promise me nothing will go wrong."

I was about to answer when Gobber spoke up behind me.

"It's time Hiccup." He said pointing to the cage where the Monstrous Nightmare was kept, "Knock 'em dead." I turned back to Astrid and trying without words to tell her "It'll be okay" then facing the Kill Ring I raised my helmet and set it on my head and stepped out into the arena. The roar of the crowd greeted me, everyone cheering, chanting out my name, and shouting things like: "Go Hiccup!"-"Hit 'im with your best shot!"-"Give the beastie a stab in the eye from me okay!"

I barely heard anything. I strode over to the weapons rack taking a shield and a dagger. Glancing up I saw Dad in his tone seat with Gobber and the Elder on either side. I took a deep breath. There was no turning back.

"I'm ready." I said.

A crank was turned, the beams were lifted, and the doors burst open as the Nightmare charged out on fire looking for its next victim. Still roaring, the Dragon began rampaging around the Kill Ring running up the stone walls and on the caged ceiling breathing fire. Well…that was one less shot I had to worry about. Several people yelped and jumped out of the line of fire. The Nightmare ran along the caged ceiling its flames dying out when it finally noticed me. I stared right back at the Dragon wide eyed.

_Come on Hiccup focus! It's just another Dragon you can do this…_The Nightmare lowered itself to the floor of the Kill Ring looking at me like it was wondering if he should put up a fight or just broil me and be done with it. I instinctively raised my shield and took a step back.

"Go on Hiccup! Give it to 'im!" someone in the crowd shouted. The Nightmare advanced on me slowly waiting for who would make the first move. I took another step back and dropped my dagger. The weapon fell to the stone floor with a loud clatter. I stepped back again dropping my shield. I slowly raised my arms up to begin calming the Dragon.

Confused mutterings rose up from the crowd along with some booing. I didn't care. The Dragon snorted slightly confused I took another step back as the Nightmmare slowly started to calm down.

"It's okay…" I said in a calming voice, "It's okay…" I came to a stop and so did the Nightmare who was starting to calm down as his eyes started dilating. I lifted my hands up to my helmet and took it off. I looked at the Dragon straight in the eyes.

"I'm not one of them." I said casting the helmet aside to the ground along with everything I refused to become. Somehow, I knew that Mom would've understood my actions. A huge collective gasp came up from the crowd.

"What is he thinking?"

"He'll be eaten!"

"ARGH! I can't watch! Tell me when it's over!"

Dad got up slightly from his seat looking both confused and worried.

"Stop the fight…" he said.

"No." I said holding my hand out to the Nightmare, "I need you ALL to see this." The Nightmare snorted a little and started to sniff my hand. So far it was working.

"They're not what we think they are." I said as the gap between my hand and the Nightmare started to close, "_We don't have to kill them_." Another gasp came from the crowd. I had their attention, good just a few more seconds…

"I SAID STOP THAT FIGHT!"

_CLANG!_

_Everything_ went wrong.

The noise from Dad hitting the cage bars with his hammer startled the Nightmare and it snapped at me!

"AH!" I barely got my arm away before it could chomp it off! I stumbled back as the Nightmare reared up. There was only one thing I could do.

Run!

I turned and ran as the Nightmare shot a plume of flame at me!

"!" I barely dodged in time and stumbling slightly kept running for my life as the Nightmare gave chase! Playing tag with Toothless had increased my speed but it was still taking everything I had to stay just ahead of the Nightmare chasing me! My whole mind went blank with only one thought fueling: "RUN!" I heard Astrid call out my name but I barely heard her, all I could hear was the Nightmare hot on my heels.

In a desperate attempt I started running in circles hoping the panicked shouts from the crowd would confuse it and hoping to make it dizzy. I looked over my shoulder to still see the Nightmare chasing me! Another plume of flame shot out and I dove forward to dodge it-just barely…while running around I looked around frantically for something-anything to defend myself with! I ran over to the weapons rack and made a dive for a shield. The Nightmare charged headlong at me I raised the shield and was knocked over as it charged by me. I scrambled back to my feet as the Nightmare made another go at me, I kept running panting heavily. I couldn't keep this up forever!

"Hiccup!" Astrid shouted then…_WHACK!_ The Nightmare roared and glancing over my shoulder saw that Astrid had thrown a hammer at it. I almost swore that she was one of the Valkyrie coming to my rescue. The Nightmare then went for _her_ instead! Astrid sprinted around in a tight circle giving me time to run for the exit as Dad threw up the gate and ran down to the cage door. Dad threw that one up easily too.

"THIS WAY!" he shouted as Astrid and I ran for the exit. Astrid got there first after throwing another hammer at the Nightmare. I was almost there just a few more feet…

…And a plume of flame shot out right next to me blasting the Kill Ring wall! I skidded to a halt and automatically ran in the opposite direction. The Nightmare bounced off the wall behind me, I tripped and fell to the stone floor, and a large talon pinned me to the floor slowly crushing me. I stared up at the Ngihtmare panicking as the Dragon lowered its head towards me, going in for the kill…

_NO! Not like this…If only I could've told Astrid…_

A familiar high-pitched shriek filled the air. The Nightmare turned its head around with the rest of the crowd and flying right at the Kill Ring was Toothless! There was a flash of light and a violet fireball shot right at the cage ceiling sending the crowd scattering for cover.

_BOOM!_

The Kill Ring filled with smoke. I couldn't see a thing past the Dragon claw that was pinning me down and crushing me. I struggled to get my arms free and even more pressure came down on my ribs! Toothless roared and the Nightmare howled in pain and was suddenly pulled off me. I rolled to the side coughing on the smoke as the sounds of Toothless and the Nightmare fighting echoed off the stone walls.

I heard several panicked shouts from the crowd. The Nightmare roared and something grabbed the back of my vest-I hoped it wasn't the Nightmare-and dragged me away towards the far wall of the Kill Ring. As the smoke cleared a familiar dark shape bounded past me and stood in front of me taking a protective stance. I didn't know how, but Toothless had somehow gotten here, and just in time too!

The Nightmare got back to its feet and roared at Toothless-who roared back. The Nightmare lunged at Toothless trying to get past him. Toothless lunged clawing, kicking, scratching, biting. Doing everything he could to keep the Nightmare back. I knew Toothless had been rather protective of me but I never expected he'd actually fight to the death!

Toothless was knocked down the Nightmare tried to pin him but Toothless snapped his powerful jaws at its face and with a powerful swipe of his paw knocked the Nightmare back. I pushed myself up frozen as the smoke fully cleared breathing heavily. Toothless back away from the Nightmare standing in front of me. The Nightmare tries to get past Toothless again and again, but each and every time he blocked the Nightmare. Toothless roared flaring out his wings forming a protective wall and flapped them.

The Nightmare cringed and slunk back into its cage trying to close the doors itself. Feeling came back to my legs and I sprang up rushing over to Toothless, "Toothless!" I put my hands on his head and snout.

"GET IT!" someone shouted and a large burly Viking leapt down into the Kill Ring axe at the ready and was followed by several more of the townspeople. They were coming for Toothless! I looked around starting to panic at the sight of the villagers pouring into the Kill Ring.

"Toothless! Go!" I shouted pushing ay his bulk, "Get out of here!" Toothless didn't budge. He thought _I_ was still in danger! But I wasn't, _he _was! I pushed at him again _willing_ him to understand the danger he was in! Toothless still didn't move. A low growl sounded from his belly then he roared and leapt forwards knocking several of the Vikings away.

"Toothless!" I shouted, "GO! I'm fine! You have to get out of here!" Toothless swung his tail at a Viking who tried to rush him from behind sending his flying into three others. I ran forwards catching up to Toothless.

"_GO!_" I shouted pushing at Toothless again, "They won't hurt me! They're going to _kill you_! GO!" Toothless stood his ground still ready to defend me.

"GET AWAY FROM HIM YOU DEVIL!" Dad shouted. I turned to see Dad rushing towards us axe held high.

"NO! Dad he won't hurt you!" I shouted. I felt Toothless tense up; he was getting ready to pounce! Toothless roared and lunged at Dad into a rolling tackle. Toothless pinned Dad to the floor roaring and the hot gas trailed from his jaws.

_No…not Dad!_

"NO!" I shouted as loud as I could. That snapped Toothless out it. He closed his jaws and lowered himself to the floor relaxing slightly and turned his head around to face me. The townspeople rushed by me as I just stood there catching my breath. We had been found out.

_WHAM!_

Dad punched Toothless on the side of his head causing him to reel to the side.

"No!" I cried out. Somehow Dad managed to get back to his feet and pin Toothless to the floor! There was a shout of "Get him!" and before I could even react Toothless was pinned by even more Vikings!

"No! NO!" I shouted rushing forwards to help Toothless but was held back by Astrid.

"There's nothing you can do Hiccup!" Astrid said in a chocked sob. I strained to get free but Astrid was stronger than I was. All I could do was plead and watch helplessly as Toothless was pinned down under a pile of Vikings.

"P-please…d-don't hurt him…" already I could feel the tears coming. I strained again to get free but Astrid still held me back. Dad straightened up glaring at Toothless.

"Put it in with the others." Dad ordered. The Vikings started to lift Toothless off the stone floor and haul him into one of the cages.

"No!" I cried out again reaching out desperately to Toothless. Dad stepped towards Astrid and I glaring at me. I looked up at him, he was so angry he couldn't even speak.

"D-dad…" I said in a choked voice. Dad grabbed my arm and dragged me away from the Kill Ring. I stumbled behind him twisting around. The last thing I saw before Dad dragged me through the Kill Ring doors was Toothless being dragged into one of the cages and the doors slamming shut.

Dad dragged me over to the Meade Hall, threw the door open and threw me in. I stumbled forwards several feet before coming to a stop. I turned around Dad came in banging the door shut behind him.

"I should have known…" He said angrily, "I should've seen the signs!" he strode past me fuming.

"Dad?" I said.

"WE HAD A DEAL!" He shouted.

"I…I know I…I should've told you but that was before…" My head started spinning as the events of the past month and half replayed in my head, "Ah…It's so messed up now…" I held my head in my hands trying to think straight. What had I gotten myself into? Dad paced back and forth in front of me unable to speak.

"I screwed up." I said, "I…I should've told you-."

"So…Everything in the Ring a trick? A lie?" Dad snapped.

"I…I know you're mad." I said, "Be mad at me. Take it all out on me. But _please_ don't hurt Toothless." I pleaded.

"The _Dragon_!" Dad shouted incredulously, "_That's_ what yer worried about? Not the _people you almost got killed?_!"

"He was just protecting me!" I shouted, "He's _not_ dangerous!"

"_THEY'VE_ KILLED _HUNDREDS_ OF _US_!" Dad shouted.

"AND _WE'VE_ KILLED _THOUSANDS_ OF _THEM_!" I shouted back, "They defend themselves, that's all. They raid us because they have no other choice. If they don't bring enough food back, they'll be eaten themselves. There's…something else on their island…It's…nothing you've-."

"Ye've been to the Nest!" Dad demanded. Way too late I realized what I just said.

"D-did I say "nest"?" I asked myself out lout.

"HOW DID YE FIND IT!" Dad shouted advancing on me.

"N-no! I-I didn't…" I stammered starting to panic, "T-Toothless did…Only Dragons can find their island…" Dad stopped in his tracks frowning slightly. He was thinking. Somehow I knew what he was planning.

"No…" I groaned, "Dad…You can't…It's…it's like nothing you've ever seen before! It's not even a Dragon! It just looks like one!" he ignored me completely walking right past me. No…if he took the armada out there they'd all be killed!

"Dad…I promise you _can't_ win this!" I shouted desperately. Still no response why couldn't…why didn't he _ever_ listen to me?

"No…Dad…" I took a step forward, "FOR ONCE IN YOUR LIFE WILL YOU _PLEASE_ _LISTEN TO ME?_!" I ran forwards to stop him grabbing his arm. He swung his arm back throwing me to the floor. I sat up gasping not believing what had just happened. Dad turned to face me, anger and betrayal in his eyes.

"Ye've thrown yer lot in with them." Dad said thickly, "Yer not a Viking."

But what he said next was much worse.

"Ye're not my son." The words struck me right in the heart and my blood went cold like poison. My whole body went limp as I watched Dad turn around slamming the door shut so hard it swung on its hinges several times before closing.

"READY THE SHIPS!" Dad shouted. He stood outside for a moment then went down the steps.

I sat frozen in place. All my strength had abandoned me.

The tears came. Once they did, they didn't stop.

"T-toothless…" I gasped shuddering from the tears I buried my face in my knees still crying. This was all my fault. They were probably torturing Toothless somewhere. Outside, the armada was being readied, it only be a matter of hours before they would depart. Once they reached the Dragon's Nest, they'd all be killed.

Everything, all this…because of me. I must have been named "Hiccup" for a reason. Was that what I was? A mistake since the day I was born? Now, the only who'd ever accepted me was taken away from me.

After what felt like days later, but it was really only a few hours the strength to move came back to me. I stood up and left the Meade Hall. No one even looked at me and detoured around me as I walked away from Berk. I knew what that meant. I was exiled from the tribe.

As if I wasn't already…My whole life I had been an outcast but I never knew why then. Now, I was branded a traitor, not to be trusted, a freak…I arrived at the outskirts of Berk, the only place besides the woods I could be and not get killed. I sank down onto a fallen tree feeling horrible. No…worse than horrible. It went beyond physical hurt.

The sounds of the armada being readied came from the docks as weapons and war machines were loaded onto the ships. And…something else. Toothless! I ran over to the wooden walkway overlooking the docks to see two Vikings securing a large wood harness on Toothless who was chained down to a plank of wood. Toothless was struggling violently to get free as he was hoisted up onto Dad's ship. Dad was already on board he turned and he must have seen me but he turned away just as quickly.

I wanted nothing more than to run down and save Toothless but I had lost all strength to do anything. Even if I did run down there, I'd just get killed then who knows what would've happened next. All I could do was watch. Toothless must have been absolutely miserable I could almost feel it myself. And he was also terrified, I don't know how I knew that I just _knew_.

The wind was at my back, with that wind the armada would reach Helhiem's Gate in less than half a day. The ships started to pull out of the docks and sailed away. I stayed where I was watching the ships disappear into the distance along with my best friend and part of myself. The only sounds now were the wind, seagulls squawking, the waves crashing against the shoreline; the sun was shining brightly. Everything seemed peaceful and calm.

Without Toothless, nothing should be that way. The whole world felt cold and dark.

_Toothless…I'm so sorry…this…all this…this is all my fault…_My eyes burned agian as I felt more tears come.

I sensed Astrid walking up next to me as the wood planks creaked slightly.

"It's a mess…" She said. Why was she talking me? I was kicked out of the tribe no one was allowed to even _look_ at me and could kill me and get away with it.

"You've lost everything…" She said, "Your father, your tribe, your best friend…" I didn't need reminding of what I just went through! I was feeling bad enough without her rehashing it!

"Thank you for summing that up." I said slightly resentfully. I just wanted her to leave me alone. Astrid stayed where she was next to me. Finally I had to break the silence.

"What are you doing here anyway? I'm exiled remember? You're not supposed to do anything with me." I said.

"I was exiled too." Astrid said. Great…I had gotten Astrid exiled too, "I wasn't going to let you go down by yourself." She said that she had gotten into a shouting match with her parents and basically had exiled herself. She did that for me? My head started spinning at the thought of it. No one had ever done anything like that to help me.

"This is all my fault…" I said not looking at Astrid hen without thinking, "Why couldn't I have killed that Dragon when I found him in the woods? Would've been better for everyone…" But I wouldn't have found my best friend if I had. Why hadn't I been able to kill Toothless when I first found him?

"Yeah," Astrid said wryly, "The rest of us would've done it. So, why didn't _you_?"

I had never thought about that until now. Now that I thought about it…the events of my first encounter with Toothless replayed in my memory.

"I…I couldn't…" I said trying to straighten out my thoughts.

"That's not an answer." Astrid said.

_Now_ I was angry why couldn't she just _go away_ and _leave me alone_!

"FINE!" I shouted turning to face her, "I was a _coward_, I was _weak_. I _wouldn't_ kill a Dragon!"

"You said 'wouldn't' that time." Astrid pointed out.

I turned away groaning in exasperation, "_WHY_ is this so _IMPORTANT_ to _you_!" I shouted. I started to walk away.

"Because…" Astrid said, "I want to remember what you say right now."

I stopped in my tracks. I recalled the moment when I was about to plunge my dagger into Toothless's scaly hide. It had been as though some greater force had stopped me. Like someone had grabbed my arm saying "don't!" that was how it felt. But why didn't I…Then I remembered the look of terror in Toothless's eyes and how I had felt the exact same way.

"I wouldn't kill him because…He was just as frightened as I was." I said turning around to face Astrid, "I saw him and…I saw myself." I suddenly laughed half-heartedly.

"Huh…300 years…and I'm the first Viking to _not_ kill a Dragon." I said turning away from Astrid. I just wanted to be alone for now…

"First to Ride one." Astrid said.

_The first Dragon Rider…_She was right. I _was_ the first Viking to _ride_ a Dragon. Flying with Toothless were some of the happiest memories I had with him, but at that point I never really considered myself as his Rider. Then I was just helping him fly again and sharing the experience.

I didn't want to lose that. I turned back around to face Astrid.

"I bet he's really frightened now." She said looking out over the sea, "What are you gonna do?"

I thought. One stupid idea got me and everyone else into this mess so maybe another would get us out.

"Hmmm…something stupid." I said shrugging.

Astrid pursed her lips slightly, "Good…_but_ you've already done that."

_Okay, if all the stupid options are gone then there's only one thing to do._

"Then," I said backing up getting ready to sprint to the Kill Ring, "Something _crazy_."

Astrid grinned, "That's more like it."

* * *

**This was one fo the toughest chapters to write emotionally. But as for how Hiccup was feeling, that part wasn't too difficult. I remember feeling the same way at one time during sith grade, the year I went thorugh hell. and most of grade school, I got outcasted by the other girls just becasue my faveorite color was green and my faveorite music composer was Phil Collins (he wrote the songs for Tarzan-amazing voice...) and I was dealing with a bunch of hypocrites. thankfully my home enviroment was more supportive. Still...if I ahd to repeat sixth grade I'd rather deal with Vikings at least I'm of Viking decent!**

**As for the Thor's Hammer charm, I tossed that in as a scene of bonding for Hiccup and Astrid (A girl giving the hero her lucky charm is a faveorite scene of mine!). Vikings would wear these for good luck and to pray for a safe voyage home. As you know, Thor is the Norse god of thunder, and he is also the protector of Humans. Interesting bit of trivia hm?**

**Well, it looks like our hero's about to do something crazy! see you for the final chapter!**

**Chocobo Scribe**


	10. I Do Something Crazy

**Dat Dah dah! We're at the final chapter! I am abosultly thrilled at how many people have been reading this and that you've all enjoyed it as much as the Toothless POV one. Well, I'm treating you to a nice long chapter and enjoy it! on word the enitre fic reached 100 pages yay!**

**Enough of my ramblings, read and review! It's time for the final battle!**

**Standard disclaimers apply.**

* * *

**Chapter Ten: I Do Something Crazy**

_And I want a moment to be real,_

_Want to touch things I don't feel,_

_Wanna hold on and feel I belong._

_And how, can they say I'll never change?_

_They're the ones that stay the same._

_I'm the one now, 'cause I'm still here,_

_I'm the one,_

'_Cause I'm still here,_

_I'm still here,_

_I'm still here,_

_I'm Still Here…_

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

I ran down through the almost deserted town right for the Kill Ring with Astrid right behind. Nearly all the ships were gone and besides I didn't know how to handle much more than a rowboat. The only way to catch up with the armada, we would have to fly. Good thing we had some Dragons in the Kill Ring in perfect flying shape. We only stopped at my house on the way to get my flight vest.

Both Astrid and I arrived at the Kill Ring without running into anyone. If we had, there would've been trouble. Exiled, we weren't allowed anywhere near Berk except the outskirts. But, desperate times call for desperate measures. The first cage I headed for was the Monstrous Nightmare's. I know what you're thinking, after my near death experience wouldn't I want to stay _far away_ from the Nightmare? No. The only reason the Nightmare attacked me was because the sound of Dad hitting the bars with his hammer startled it so badly.

"If you're planning on getting eaten, I'd go with the Groncle." Fishlegs said from behind me. Astrid and I both turned around surprised. Not only was Fishlegs there, so was Snotlout, Tuffnut, and Ruffnut. What were they doing here?

"If you two think we're here to smash you flat we're not." Snotlout said.

"We all got exiled too." Ruffnut said, "I mean…even an idiot could've seen that your Night Fury wasn't going to hurt you."

All I could do was blink in amazement. Snotlout then said that he and Tuffnut got into a shouting match with Dad and Uncle Spitelout trying to tell them that Toothless had been trying to protect me. I was almost speechless. They had gotten themselves exiled for me?

"You…were exiled too?" I asked.

"Yeah." Tuffnut said, "We couldn't let you and Astrid go down by yourselves."

"Why?" I asked.

"Because that's what friends do." Snotlout said, "They stick up for eachother."

"Guys…" I said.

"Thanks." Astrid finished for me.

"Alright." Tuffnut said flapping his hand impatiently, "Warm fuzzies later, what's the plan?"

"We catch up with our parents and the armada." I said. Tuffnut stepped forward importantly.

"You are wise to seek aid from the world's deadliest weapon." He paused for effect and an awkward silence followed, "That's me." _This_ coming from the guy who got his nose gnawed on by the Terrible Terror on an almost regular basis? He was shoved aside by Snolout.

"I _love_ this plan." He said trying to show his enthusiasm. He was pushed aside by Ruffnut.

"You're _crazy_!" she said and the look on her face said so too, then changed to a slightly disturbing smile, "I like that…" she said leaning forward towards me. I leaned back slightly unnerved. Luckily, Astrid came to my rescue grabbing Ruffnut by one of her braids and pulling her away looking disgusted. This turning out from my worst birthday ever to the strangest…

"So," Astrid said, "What's the plan?"

"Astrid, can you open the Nightmare's cage?" I asked, "It'll be easier to show than explain." Astrid nodded. Snotlout's eyes bugged.

"WHAT!" he bleated, "You're gonna get up close and personal with the Nightmare! Right after it nearly made a meal out of you!" Astrid punched him on her way out of the ring.

"Hey, the Nightmare only attacked Hiccup because it was startled and went nuts." Tuffnut said, "Even the kids saw that."

"Hey, I trained a Night Fury." I said, "The most feared of Dragons remember? The Monstrous Nightmare? No problem." The turned around as the beams were lifted from the Nightmare's cage I stepped forward to open the doors. As soon as the Nightmare saw me and smelled me, it began to calm down. I held my hand out and slowly stepping backwards led the Dragon out of its cage never breaking eye contact.

"Whoa…" Tuffnut said.

"Cool…" Ruffnut said.

I stepped back until I was standing next to Snotlout. At that point my hand was resting against the Nightmare's snout. Snotlout flinched slightly, I grabbed his wrist and started to move his hand to the Nightmare's snout.

"H-hey! Wh-what're you doing!" he bleated.

"It's okay…just trust them and they'll trust you back." I said, "I've had personal experience." I put Snotlout's hand on the Nightmare's snout and both he and the Dragon calmed down immensely. In fact I they liked each other right off the bat.

"Wow…" Snotlout said laughing, "This…This…This is cool!" he scratched the Dragon's nose causing it to rumble happily and closed it eyes lazily. I walked over to the side of the ring.

"Hey where're you going!" Snotlout bleated. I lifted out a coil of rope from a large box.

"You're going to need something to hold on with." I said.

We all got the rest of the Dragons out of their cages, the Terrible Terror just jumped onto Tuffnut, gnawed at his nose then flew away. While I was making makeshift harnesses, everyone else was trying to think of a name for their Dragons and determine if they were male or female. I almost laughed as I watched this. I couldn't help but notice some vague similarities between the Dragons and their new Riders.

And for once, Tuffnut and Ruffnut agreed on something. For a minute they couldn't agree on either Tinder or Flint for their ZippleBack. Ruffnut wanted to name him 'Tinder', Tuffnut wanted to name him 'Flint'. Then Tuffnut by some miracle of Odin came up with a solution.

"How about 'Tinderflint'?" Tuffnut said, "You name your head 'Tinder' and I'll name my head 'Flint'. How's that?"

"For once I think we can agree on something." Ruffnut said, "Tinderflint it is." Tinderflint seemed to like the idea too.

Astrid named her Nadder 'Squall' on account of the sound of the laughing sound he made.

Snotlout was having some trouble, "So…how about…Fireball?" the Nightmare snorted rolling its eyes, "Um…Kaboom?" The Nightmare gave him a withering look.

"Maybe you should figure out gender first?" I suggested.

"I think she's a girl." Snotlout said, "Female Dragons are more vicious. So how about…Firewyrm?" The Nightmare's eyes lit up as if saying "there you go!".

Fishlegs named his Groncle "Bumblebee", "Groncles fly around like bumblebees!" he said in his defense. He may know almost everything about Dragons, but he was never very creative.

Once everyone had their harnesses on we all mounted our Dragons. Just before take off I quickly told everyone how to steer.

"Just lean in whatever direction you want to go." I said, "Lean forward to dive, lean back to climb higher up."

"How are we gonna get to the Dragon's Nest?" Ruffnut said from her head on the ZippleBack.

"We just get to Helhiem's Gate." Astrid said, "The Dragons will take care of the rest once we're in the fog."

"Alright!" Snotlout shouted "Let's get outta here!" and nearly crashed into the caged ceiling.

"Come on!" I said "We've gotta catch up with the armada!" soon as Snotlout and Firewyrm disentangled themselves we all took off from Berk heading for Helhiem's Gate. The armada had several hours head start, they'd probably reach the Dragon's Nest before we did, but since we were flying we'd probably be able to get there in time. During the flight I quickly filled everyone in on the plan.

"…There's some kind of Dragon eating monster there." I shouted over the wind, "If the Dragons don't bring enough food back, they'll be eaten! If Dad and the others try to fight that thing they'll all be killed!"

"So we have to warn them!" Astrid shouted from behind me on the Nadder, "We might be able to hold it off so everyone can get out of there."

"Fight it?" Tuffnut said his eyes lighting up, "Sounds like a great plan! You should think more often Hiccup!"

"He does that all the time you idiot!" Ruffnut shouted taking a swing at him. They started bickering again and taking swings at each other nearly causing their ZippleBack to wobble and fall out of the air!

"_WILL YOU TWO STOP THAT!"_ I shouted, "Save your energy for monster-butt kicking will you!" Both twins stopped fighting immediately. Breathing slightly in relief I turned back to look ahead as we all flew over the ocean.

_Hold on Toothless…I'm coming…_He had saved me, now I was going to save him.

"Don't worry." Astrid said grasping my hand, "We'll save Toothless."

It took us only a few hours to reach Helhiem's Gate. Once we were in the fog, the Dragons took care of the rest. They knew where to go, all we had to do was hold on.

"I can't see a thing!" Snotlout shouted, "You sure our Dragons know where we're going?"

"Yes I'm sure!" I shouted, "Just hold on!"

"Ugghhh…I don't feel so good…" Fishlegs moaned.

"Don't tell me you _ate_ before this!" Ruffnut shouted.

"He always 'just ate'." Tuffnut grumbled, "Hold on Fishlegs don't puke on us!"

Several lurching turns later and we burst out of the fog. The armada had already arrived and nearly all the ships had been set on fire! On the shore of the volcanic island we could see the Vikings running away from…

"WHAT IS THAT THING!" Snotlout shouted.

"It's HUGE!" Tuffnut shouted.

"Beyond huge!" Ruffnut said.

"That's why the Dragons have been raiding Berk!" Astrid shouted, "If they don't give it food it'll eat them!"

"Looks like a Dragon but isn't one." Fishlegs said, "Got it! Better attack from behind!"

"Alright!" I shouted let's go!" I leaned to the side taking the Nadder into a dive and with several loud whoops and cheers the other followed us. The monster was stomping around on the beach, at its feet I could see Dad and Gobber running around trying to distract it from the fleeing villagers led by Uncle Spitelout. The thing swung its large armored head from side to side then raised its head up, there was a sharo intake of air and the smell of sulfur. It was going to breathe fire!

_Oh no you don't!_ We swooped in from behind and…

_BOOM!_

All at once our Dragons shot out fireballs hitting the beast right in the back of its head. It roared in pain as we swooped around it making our escape before it could broil _us_.

"YEAH!" Snotlout cheered swinging his hammer over his head.

"WE'RE ON DRAGONS!" Tuffnut shouted.

"ALL OF US! WE'RE ON DRAGONS!" Snotlout shouted.

"Ev'ry bit o' bull-headed stubborn Viking _you ever were_." I heard Gobber say to Dad in his "I-told-you-so" voice. I caught a glimpse of Dad looking up at us on our Dragons with something close to amazement. We circled above the battle.

"Alright Fishlegs break it down!" I shouted. If anyone could give an on the spot profile it was Fishlegs. Fishlegs squinted as he looked at the creature roaring and stomping on the beach.

"Large jaw and clubbed tail tip made for crushing, _stay away from both_!" Fishlegs shouted over the roaring, "Large nostrils, small eyes, must rely on smell and hearing!" Okay so that meant its vision must be very bad.

"Alright, 'Lout! 'Legs! Hang out in its blind spot; make some noise to confuse it!" I shouted. Snotlout made a saluting motion, Fishlegs gave a thumbs up and both dove down to the monster hovering on either side of its head.

"Ruff! Tuff! Figure out if it has a shot limit!" I shouted, "Make it _mad_; _really _mad!"

"You got it!" Ruffnut shouted happily, "Pissing off is my specialty!"

"Since _when_!" Tuffnut snapped, "_EveryoneI knows I'm_ more irritating!" He swung his ZippleBack head upside down making faces and annoying noises. Ruffnut started slugging Tuffnut and the two began bickering _again_.

"WILL YOU TWO JUST SHUT UP AND GET IN THERE!" I shouted.

"Okay! Okay! We're on it!" Tuffnut and Ruffnut shouted in unison. They took their ZippleBack into a dive right at the monster's face. I steered the Nadder towards the burning ships looking for Toothless. I craned my neck around looking for Toothless.

_Come on buddy where are you..?_ I thought desperately scanning the flames. I steered the Nadder in a wide arc looking…praying…Then…

"THERE!" Astrid shouted pointing to the struggling black shape of Toothless. I quickly unsecured myself from the Nadder and carefully got behind Astrid as she scooted forward on his back.

"Go help the others." I said readying myself to jump, "Soon as I'm up break off your attack!" Astrid nodded, and I jumped! I landed on the deck of the ship staggering forwards slightly right in front of Toothless. He was still alive!

"Toothless!" I shouted hugging him tightly. All I had to do now was get him free. I grabbed the muzzle around his snout and started to pull.

"I'm so sorry, this is all my fault!" I grunted pulling the muzzle off Toothless's head. Toothless looked at me with his large green eyes as if telling me it wasn't my fault. The muzzle slid off and I staggered back slightly. I grabbed a metal pole lying nearby and put it through one of the metal rings the chains holding Toothless down were attached to.

"Don't worry!" I shouted, "I'll get you out of these!" I threw my whole weight into it trying to pry up the chains to free Toothless. If I didn't hurry either we'd both get burned or drowned, or both! I wasn't going to let that happen. I kept trying to get the chains loose, using every last once of strength I had, but it wasn't anywhere near enough. The flames kept getting hotter and closer.

Just when I thought it couldn't get any worse, a large clubbed tail swung over the ships and the mast of the ship Toothless and I were on came crashing down right in front of me!

"AH!" and we were both dropped into the water. I resurfaced sputtering. I looked down and saw Toothless sinking to the bottom of the bay! He'd drown! I took a deep breath and dove down to the bottom of the bay to the struggling Toothless. I grabbed the chains and started pulling as hard as I could.

_I need air!_ Dark spots started appearing in the corners of my vision and my grip on the chains started going slack and I inhaled water. I was drowning. _No Some_…s_omeone…please…sa…ve…Tooth…less…_I started to sink to the rocky floor of the bay starting to pass out and inhale more water.

A large hand grabbed me by the straps of my flight vest and I was jerked upwards. I was only aware of the movement. Whoever had grabbed me was swimming to the surface as fast as they could!

_No…Toothless…_

We broke the surface of the water, I was pulled up out of the water and then I was lying down on the shore. As soon as I got air into my lungs I started coughing up all the water I had inhaled. I sat up still coughing and blinking the water out of my eyes. My vision cleared in time for me to see Dad dive into the water! He saved me?

"Dad?"

What happened next was the longest thirty seconds I ever experienced. I stood up completely waterlogged staring at the water. Why wasn't Dad coming back up? I knew he was a strong swimmer and could hold his breath for a good few minutes but…I backed up ready to dive in to help. Bubbles roiled on the water's surface and Toothless burst out carrying Dad and splashing me with even more water. Toothless dropped Dad onto the beach flew over me and landed on a large rock. He looked over at me and jerked his head at the battle going on nearby.

I knew what he was telling me: "Come on, we've got a monster to beat."

I nodded, "You got it bud." And sprinted over to Toothless swinging myself up into the saddle and started to secure myself in when Dad grasped my arm. I looked over confused.

"I…I'm sorry…" He said, "I'm sorry for everything." I wasn't sure is he was really apologizing or if my head was still full of water, but I was sure he meant every word.

"Yeah…Me too." I said nodding, "Me too." It was my impulsiveness that had gotten us all into the mess. Now I was going to get us and the Dragons out of it. Dad grasped my arm a little tighter, he seemed afraid.

"Y-ye don't have to go up there." He said a touch of fear in his words.

I had to go up there. Maybe I was even born for this.

"We're Vikings Dad." I said shrugging, "It's an occupational hazard." I had heard Dad say that several times before. I never thought I'd be saying them myself. The apple didn't fall too far from the tree after all.

Dad placed his other hand on my arm, "I…I'm proud to call ye my son." And let go. My head spun with confusion mixed with some relief. This was the first time Dad saying he was proud of me, for who I was. I wasn't even sure if I was still exiled or not.

"Thanks…Dad…" I said then turned forward, "Alright Toothless let's go!" Toothless grunted and thrust his wings down taking off! Soon as we were up Astrid and Squall flew down to the monster and with Tinderflint bringing up the rear. Snotlout jumped off the thing's head and landed on Tinderflint's back and both Dragons started to fly away. The monster opened its maw to breathe fire and Astrid and Squall were being sucked in! There was _no_ way I was going to let that happen!

"Come on!" Shouted and flattened myself on Toothless's back to increase our speed. Toothless tucked his wings to his sides as we went into a dive and a high pitched shriek filled the air and I felt a rumble below me as he was about to launch a fireball.

"NIGHT FURY!" someone screamed.

"GET DOWN!" Gobber shouted.

Toothless dove, right at the beast's maw and just before Astrid and Squall were sucked in…

_BOOM!_

Toothless's fireball slammed right into the thing's jaw and Astrid was thrown off Squall and started to fall! Squall went spinning out of control and crashed into the shoals.

"Astrid!" I shouted. Toothless twisted around in midair and dove again to Astrid.

"!"

We swooped down and Astrid's screaming stopped. Did we catch her in time?

"Did you catch her!" I shouted over the roaring as Toothless flew away from the monster. I twisted around in the saddle and saw Astrid's hand sticking out from below Toothless giving me a thumbs up. We caught her. I leaned left and Toothless banked I heard Astrid grunting and we flew low to drop her off where the rest of the townspeople were.

"Go." I heard Astrid say in parting as Toothless and I flew back into the fight. The monster was stomping around on the beach trying to crush any stragglers underfoot. Toothless slammed into its face and started clawing at its eyes. It had _three pairs_. The thing roared as Toothless took a swipe at one of the eyes rendering it completely useless. It was taking all I had just to hold on the way I was getting tossed around. Toothless clawed again then flew away taking us higher up into the air. Just before we flew away I noticed something.

"That thing has wings!" I said and an idea formed in my head. Forget crazy, I was going to do something insane, "Okay…Let's see it can use 'em!" And took Toothless into a dive towards the monster.

_I hope I know what I'm doing…_I thought and flattened myself on Toothless's back as he tucked his wings to his sides readying to launch another fireball. We dove down, closer…closer…closer…and…

_BOOM!_

Toothless's fireball slammed right into the monster's wings knocking it right to the beach. We pulled out of our dive and started to fly away over the bay trying to get some distance before it started to chase us.

"Do you think that did it?" I asked Toothless twisting around in the saddle to see the monster giving chase, "Well…it can fly." I added nervously. Now we had to get this thing far away from everyone else on the beach! I steered Toothless into the fog navigating trying to stay ahead of the thing as it chased us, I didn't need to looked behind to know it was starting to catch up. We flew through the sea stacks and over the crashing and sound of rocks shattering I could hear cheering coming from Astrid, Snotlout, Fishlegs, Ruffnut and Tuffnut. I didn't hear what they were saying, I was focused on one thing only. Bringing this monster down! There was a lid roar behind us and Toothless picked up speed! I steered Toothless away from the beach and flying over the bay I looked up seeing dark storm clouds.

_Perfect._

"Alright Toothless. Time to disappear!" I said, "COME ON BUD!" and pulled back on the saddle and Toothless started climbing higher into the air towards the storm clouds. Behind us there was another roar and a sharp intake of breath and the smell of sulfur! I looked over my shoulder, the thing was about to breathe fire!

"HERE IT COMES!" I shouted and steered Toothless out of the line of fire as a red hot plume of flame shot up right next to us! We shot right into the storm clouds flying as fast as possible trying to lose the monster in the cloud cover. Ina few seconds, the thing stopped chasing us, we had disappeared now we could attack.

"_It's the wings and the tail ye want. Without those a Dragon can't fly."_

We banked right circling the monster who was whipping its head around looking for Toothless and I. Target, the wings.

"Now." I said in Toothless's ear and flattened myself on his back. Toothess dove and shot a fireball at the monster hitting it in the back of the head. It roared and whipped its head around to retaliate but by then Toothless and I were already behind it again. Toothless shot another fireball this one going right through the monster's wings. Again and again we swooped around in the cloud cover and each and every time Toothless landed a hit.

But he couldn't keep shooting fireballs forever.

With an enraged roar the monster spun around spewing out a jet of flame! I yelped and tried to steer Toothless away if the prosthetic tailfin caught on fire we'd both fall to our deaths!

"WATCH OUT!" I shouted steering Toothless away staring to make our escape. Suddenly Toothless wobbled in mid air! I turned around in the saddle and my heart skipped a beat. The prosthetic tail fin had caught on fire and was falling apart! We had to take this thing down, _now_.

"O-Okay time's up." I said trying not to panic, "Let's see if this works…" I said more to myself. That thing may not have been a Dragon, but I was sure it wasn't fireproof inside. If I could just time it right…I took Toothless into a dive shooting over the monster.

"COME ON!" I shouted trying to get its attention. "THAT THE BEST YOU CAN DO!" We flew right at its face only escaping from its jaws just barely in time! I leaned forwards on Toothless, lying flat on his back and we went into a dive almost in freefall. A roar from behind us told me that we had the thing chasing us, good, just like I wanted. I pressed down on the left stirrup, there wasn't much change in course. We only had seconds left before a nasty crash landing.

Toothless was starting to panic.

"Stay with me buddy! We're good."I said, "Just a little bit longer!" _Come on…just a few more seconds please! Please!_

We kept diving and Toothless started to tumble. It was now or never. There was a sharp intake of breath and the smell of sulfer…

"Hold Toothless…" I said. One…Two…Three…I glanced over my shoulder to see hot gas building up in the back f the monster's throat.

"NOW!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. Toothless twisted around in midair and launched a fireball into the heated gas just before the flames could shoot out. The monster choked and gagged on the flames as it started to explode from the inside out! It flared it wings out to slow its fall but the holes we already put in, the explosion inside it, and the velocity of the fall just made them bigger! Toothless struggled to right himself getting ready to fly back to the beach. Instead we were dragged back almost right into the monster's maw! Toothless barely managed to avoid it and all the hot air blew us higher up into the air! The monster hit the beach headfirst exploding into a huge fireball that was about to incinerate us!

Toothless flapped both sets of wings furiously all I could do was hang on and steer him through the spikes as the flames kept getting closer and closer!

Just when I thought we were safe, we lost all control over our flight. I looked over my shoulder and to my horror saw the prosthetic tailfin was gone! We were starting to tumble through the air!

"No!" I shouted then turned to look ahead and I froze. The clubbed tailfin was coming closer and closer and we couldn't avoid it!

"NO!" I shouted flattening myself on Toothless praying that it would just pass over.

_CRACK!_

We crashed right into the clubbed tail tip. There was an explosion of pain and everything went dark…

I knew I was dead.

But if I was dead, why did it still hurt?

One moment I was freezing cold, the next burning hot. And why was one of my legs hurting so much?

Warm breath, snuffling, a familiar grunting sound. I was lying down, safe and warm.

"Uggh…." I struggled to wake up. I cracked my eyes open. My vision was so blurry all I could make out was a dark shape hovering over me. I blinked trying to clear my vision and when it did the first thing I saw was Toothless! I smiled weakly up at him I'd never been happier to see him.

"…Hey…Toothless…" I croaked. I barely had the strength to speak. I couldn't even lift my arms. My whole body felt like lead and I was probably on the verge of passing out again. Toothless leaned over me gently nudging my with his snout then put his paws up and started licking my face completely overjoyed at seeing me awake. I leaned to the side slightly still lying down and wrapped my sore arms around his neck.

"…I-I' happy to see you too bud…" I said hoarsely. Toothless lifted his left paw apparently trying to hug me back and hit my left leg. Pain shot through my leg and I sat bolt up right, "OW!" I shouted clutching my left thigh wincing as Toothless jumped back.

It was _then_ I noticed where I was. I was in my bed covered in several layers of warm blankets, back in my house.

"I'm…in my house…" I said completely confused. How had I gotten here? The last thing I remembered was crashing into that monster's tail then…nothing. I turned to my left to face Toothless who was squirming happily on the spot.

"_You're_ here…in my house…" Toothless sprang off the floor and started bouncing off the ceiling and walls! He knocked over almost everything making a huge racket then jumped up to the rafters! What was Toothless doing here? How had he gotten inside?

"Wait…Does Dad know you're here!" I yelped suddenly starting to panic. What was Dad going to say when he got home and found Toothless trashing the living room? My head was spinning so badly I thought I was going to pass out again. Toothless jumped down from the rafters and bounded over to my bedside.

"Okay okay…" I said trying to figure out what was going on. Toothless was here, I was back in Berk, I wasn't dead, but what the heck was going on! Toothless jumped up to the rafters again knocking even more stuff over and started swinging upside down from the rafter by his tail. I must have been out for a long time.

"Toothless!" I said, "Aw come on…" Still I couldn't help but feel a little better seeing Toothless acting so silly. I leaned back slightly and lifted the blankets.

"Oh…" was all I said. The lower half of my left leg was gone. It was replaced by a wood and metal prosthetic. The one I had designed; spring loaded, wood calf, metal foot. I stared at my leg in shock. A bout three inches below my left knee the prosthetic leg was strapped to the stump with several leather bands.

I would never be able to run again. I would always walk with a slight limp. Toothless jumped down from the rafters and landed next to me hooting sadly. I turned to look at him. He stared at me with large sad eyes that said "I'm sorry…"

_Don't blame yourself Toothless…I'm just reaping what I sowed…_I knew I wasn't going to come out of that fight unscathed but I didn't expect to lose half a leg…I swung my legs out of bed. My right leg was bandaged at the calf but it was still intact and still in its boot. My left leg came down the prosthetic squeaking slightly. Toothless leaned down sniffing the prosthetic foot. I never thought I'd be wearing this so soon.

I was pretty depressed about not being able to run the way I used to, shocked at finding I had only a leg and a half, and completely confused about everything else. But, despite all that, the thing I was thinking most of was my first step. I looked up at Toothless and took a deep breath. And another. I stood up leaning on the bed posts and on my right leg. I braced myself and set my left leg down and evened out my weight. Pain shot up my left leg and I gasped wincing as my weight came down on the prosthetic. It was going to take a while to get used to it.

Once the pain subsided, I took another deep breath and took a step forward.

I lost my balance and fell!

"AGH!" I yelped. But instead of hitting the hard floorboards, I fell across Toothless's large black head. Toothless purred softy and gently pushed me back up to my feet. He wasn't going to let me fall. Leaning slightly on Toothless I evened my weight out again and together we both turned to the door. As we did I saw Toothless tail, I guess we're even now.

_Just one more thing to connect us…_I thought, _We really are two of a kind…_

"Thanks bud…" I said limping alongside Toothless as we crossed the room to the front door the prosthetic foot squeaking with each step. We reached the door and wobbling slightly I grasped the handle and pulled the door open.

A Monstrous Nightmare flew right by! With a startled yell I slammed the door shut leaning back against the door waiting for the fiery breath…which never came. I turned to Toothless.

"Toothless, stay here." I said. If there was another raid I wasn't going to let Toothless get hurt. I opened the door and what I saw nearly made me pass out again!

"Come on guys!" Snotlout shouted, "It's almost time for our first flight around Berk!" I stepped out of the house my mouth hanging open in shock. Dragons were _everywhere_! Dragons walking through town led by Viking's, Vikings flying Dragons around town, Dragons snoozing on rooftops, and what originally had been the torches were now communal fish bowls for the Dragons. There wasn't a weapon in sight and nearby I could see several of the little kids all playing with a Nightmare.

There was only one explanation for this.

This wasn't Berk! I was in Valhalla!

"I _knew_ it." I said, "I'm dead!"

Dad burst out laughing steeping up from behind me and wrapping an arm around my shoulders, "No, but ye gave it yer best shot." He was still chuckling at the look on my face, "So, what do ye think?" he asked gesturing to Berk. All I could do was gape in shock. We both walked down the pathway into the village with Dad supporting me as I limped alongside him.

"Hey look!" someone shouted, "It's Hiccup!" Several of the villagers all rushed over, Uncle Spitelout with a Green Terror sitting on his shoulder. I glanced around at everyone still in shock. Everyone was looking at me like I was some kind of hero.

"It turns out, all we needed was someone like this." Dad said gesturing to all me.

"You…You just gestured to all of me?" I asked completely confused. Dad smiled and nodded. I knew right then we weren't going to have anymore one sided conversations ever again.

"Well, most of ye," Gobber said stepping up pointing to my prosthetic foot, "Tha' bit's my handiwork with a bit of a "Hiccup flare". Ye like it?" I lifted my left leg looking at the prosthetic foot.

"I might make a _few_ tweaks." I said laughing slightly and everyone else burst out laughing. I already had a few ideas but first I had to get used to this thing.

_WHAM!_

"OW!" I shouted.

Astrid slugged me from behind and I lurched forwards almost falling flat on my face!

"_That_ was for scaring me." Astrid said looking half angry half relieved.

"Wh-what!" I bleated, "I-Is it _always_ gonna be this way? Because-." Astrid grasped the front of my tunic and pulling me towards her, kissed me right on the mouth. I completely forgot what I was going to say next. I was feeling almost light headed when she pulled back I grinned.

"I could get used to it." I said.

Gobber pulled out Toothless's saddle along with a new proecthetic tailfin, this one red from behind his back and dropped it into my arms.

"Welcome home Hiccup." Gobber said.

I was about to thank him when Toothless suddenly roared. I forgot! He was still in the house!

"NIGHT FURY!" Uncle Spitelout shouted and everyone scrambled out of the way as Toothless came bounding out of the house over to me, squishing Uncle Spitelout on the way. He got back up saying he was okay. The other villager burst out laughing, so did Astrid and I exchanging grins.

"Alright," Dad shouted out to the gathered townspeople, "Our first ceremonial flight around Berk is about to begin!" everyone cheered and ran over to their Dragons. I rushed over to Toothless and secured his saddle on. The only difference was now the left stirrup was made of metal with a clip where my prosthetic foot would fit into perfectly. I got my flight vest on and swung myself up into the saddle. After securing myself in I slid both feet into the stirrups. The prosthetic went in with a clean _click_. I shifted my left leg, it was working just like before.

Apart, Toothless and I were incomplete, but together, we were whole again.

I leaned forwards patting Toothless on the neck, "Ready Toothless?" Toothless grunted and shook his head grinning toothily at me. I didn't need to ask, of course he was ready! All around us Dragons and their Riders were taking off for our first flight around Berk. I glanced over to Astrid who was already mounted on Squall. We were ready. Toothless thrust his wings down and we were off! The whole world was open to us, nothing could restrain us. We all flew around Berk racing each other on our Dragons exchanging some friendly banter. Dive bombing a few people on the way.

I would never forget the day I met Toothless or anything that happened afterwards.

With a loud cheer Toothless and I flew up into the clouds ready for whatever came our way…

This is Berk.

It snows nine months of the year, and hails the other three. Any food that grows here is tough and tasteless. The _people_ that grow here are even more so. The only upsides are the pets. Well _other_ places have ponies or parrots.

Not us.

We have much _cooler_ pets.

We have…_Dragons_.

**The End**

* * *

**AND WE'RE DONE! *throws confetti* not only did I also do the movie novel fic before it gets done to death, looks like I;m the first one to finish yay! Well, I;m glad that i did so that this can keep your sanity in check till the DVD comes out.**

**As for those of you asking if this did do me any good, it did. that's all I'll say.**

**I'll be working on some HTTYD oneshots on Toothless's siblings but there might be a bit of a wait, I'm getting jaw surgery in two weeks, wish me luck, and I'll be totally out of it for a few weeks. In the mean time, please read and review and check out my tales of symphinai fanfic too.**

**Edited 6/13/10: i forot to put in some deatil that Astrid's Nadder was still alive so I out it in! **

**Well, it's been another thrilling fanfiction!**

**See you soon!**

**Chocobo Scribe signing off!**


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